Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Cu element content and heat treatment process on the microstructure and mechanical properties of 1Cr11MoNiW1VNbN martensitic heat-resistant steel. Microstructure was characterized by optical microscope (OM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), tensile testing machine and impact testing machine were used to test the mechanical property. The results show that with the increase of Cu content, the precipitation of Cu-rich phase in the steel increases, while the formation of δ-ferrite and coarse carbides decreases, which significantly improves the strength of the material. When the Cu content is 2.14%, the tensile strength at 600 °C reached 542 MPa and the yield strength reached 484 MPa after normalizing at 1000 °C and tempering at 700 °C. With the increase of the normalizing temperature, the strength of the test steel decreases slightly, and the impact energy improved significantly.