Abstract The efficient Wave-Based Method (WBM) is extended to predict the bending vibration response of thin-walled rectangular plates under thermal load. Governing equations of dynamic plate bending problems considering thermal effects are first introduced. The general solution and particular solution of governing equation are derived by the separate variable method and residue theorem, respectively. Then novel wave functions and particular solution function are selected to establish the wave-based model of dynamic plate bending problems under thermal load. The accuracy of WBM is verified by finite element method (FEM) for a simply supported plate and a clamped plate. Then the influence of thermal load on the dynamic bending responses of a clamped plate is investigated. Simulation results prove that WBM achieves higher convergence rate than FEM. The thermal load significantly changes the structural dynamic behaviors. When both the temperature-dependent material properties and thermal stresses are considered, the increase of environment temperature leads to the resonant peak of displacement response shifts toward lower frequency.