Abstract A three-dimensional (3-D) model for planar, anode-supported, solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is developed to investigate the effect of operating pressure on cell characteristics. The results show that the elevated operating pressure can improve cell performance by increasing open circuit voltage and reducing activation overpotential, and enhance the electrochemical reaction in the vicinity of electrolyte. Besides, the high pressure can also change the distributions of species and internal reforming reactions. Compared to the case using syngas as fuel, the operating pressure has more significant effects on temperature gradient along flow direction when partly pre-reformed gas is supplied. In addition, efficient control of cell temperature could be achieved by decreasing fuel utilization in the case of partly pre-reformed gas, but this is achieved at the expense of cell efficiency, especially under high pressure condition. Another way to reduce the temperature gradient is to adopt higher air ratio. Moreover, when partly pre-reformed gas is used, the counter-flow configuration has a better performance due to the higher overall temperature.