A high pressure apparatus for measuring hydrogen absorption/desorption characteristics, such as reversible hydrogen intake capacity, kinetics, plateau pressure, hysteresis, plateau slope and cycle life of alloys in the ranges 0.02 <= P/kPa <= 18 000 and 300 <= T/K <= 573 (However, when its internal pressure is below 100 kPa, the temperature upper limit can be as high as 1373 K.), controlled by a personal computer (PC) on the workbench of LabVIEW software, was constructed. This apparatus can be also used to do heat treatment, as well as to prepare some alloy powders via hydrogen pulverization process. The basic principle and the main characteristics in terms of experimental errors are presented. The usability of the apparatus and the reliability of the measuring method were checked with Pd and LaNi5 . (c) 2007 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.