The adsorption characteristics of amatanth dye by granular activated carbon were experimently investigated in the batch adsorption. Kinetic studies of adsorption of amaranth dye were carried out at 298, 308 and 318 K, using aqueous solutions with 100, 200 and 300 mg/L initial concentration of amatanth. It was established that the adsorption equilibrium of amaranth dye on granular activated carbon was successfully fitted by Langmuir isotherm equation at 298 K. The pseudo first order and pseudo second order models were used to evaluate the kinetic data and the pseudo second order kinetic model was the best with good correlation. Values of the rate constant (k2) have been calculated as 0.1076, 0.0531, and 0.0309 g/mg h at 100, 200 and 300 mg/L initial concentration of amatanth, respectively. Thermodynamic parameter such as activation energy, standard enthalpy, standard entropy and standard free energy were evaluated. The estimated values for standard free energy were -5.08 - -8.10 kJ/mol over activated carbon at 200 mg/L, indicated toward a spontaneous process. The positive value for enthalpy, 38.89 kJ/mol indicates that adsorption interaction of amatanth dye on activated carbon is an endothermic process.