Linear compressors consisting of linear motor and suspension spring have been widely used for cryogenic and refrigeration systems. This paper characterises a novel moving magnet linear motor for linear compressor including magnet spring, motor force, resonant frequency and overall performance. First, the static force of the linear motor was modelled using FEA (Finite Element Analysis) method for various excitation current and armature positions. A specific test rig was built to measure the motor force and to verify the results from FEA simulation. The magnet spring was found to be 1.3 N/mm for peak stroke. The magnet spring effect was taken account into the calculation of the resonant frequency, which mainly depends on mechanical spring and gas spring. The linear compressor using the proposed linear motor and flexure springs was instrumented for measurements of the resonant frequency at different pressure ratios and strokes. Good agreement was shown between the calculated and measured resonant frequencies for various conditions. The high efficiency novel magnet linear motor is very attractive for linear compressor.