Hydrogen is considered as a clean and promising fuel, and hydrogen production on-board has attracted widespread research attention. In this work, a gliding arc discharge (GAD) plasma reactor was utilized to reform toluene at room temperature and atmosphere pressure. The performance of hydrogen production through oxidative reforming with toluene as raw material under different input power, oxygen to carbon molecular ratio (O/C), residence time and argon addition was investigated. The optimal yields of H-2 and CO (48.6% and 44.3%) were obtained under the condition of the input power of 32 W, the O/C of 0.68, the residence time of 18.4 s and 10 vol% Ar addition. By analyses of spectrum lines and GC-MS, the plasma reforming mechanism of toluene was proposed. It is believed that N-2(B-3 Pi g) and Ar* could increase the formation of reactive oxygen species (O+, O (D-1), O and so on), and N-2(B-3 Pi g) could impact directly the reforming of toluene. (C) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.