Herein, glutathione-gold nanoclusters (GSH-AuNCs) with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) property were successfully synthesized and encapsulated within the ZIF-8 framework through self-assembly to prepare GSH-AuNCs/ZIF-8 probes. This method enhanced the fluorescence efficiency and stability of AuNCs through two aspects: (i) the AIE effect of GSH-AuNCs and (ii) the confinement effect of ZIF-8 framework, which improved the restriction of intramolecular motion (RIM) of GSH-AuNCs. The constructed GSH-AuNCs/ZIF-8 probe was demonstrated to possess strong fluorescence response and remarkable specificity towards Cu2+, as well as reliable storage stability. Under optimal conditions, the proposed fluorescent sensor exhibited a favorable linear response to Cu2+ within the concentration range of 0.1–50.0 μmol L−1 (R2 = 0.9931), with a detection limit of 0.08 μmol L−1. During the spiked analysis of tap water and fish samples, this fluorescence probe not only demonstrated good detection accuracy (recovery: 89.2–103.0 %) and reproducibility (RSD < 4.2 %, n = 3) but also enabled the rapid analysis within a short time. These results indicated that the fluorescence probe based on GSH-AuNCs encapsulated by ZIF-8 proposed an effective strategy for improving the fluorescence efficiency of AuNCs in environment and food pollutant monitoring.