Abstract-There is currently a global demand for highly-efficient and environmentally-friendly refrigeration techniques. The new concept of active magnetic regenerative (AMR) refrigeration has received much attention as a potential alternative to conventional gas expansion cooling. In the present study, Gd alloys and La(Fe,Si) 13 -based compounds, both of which have been considered as likely candidates for solid magnetic refrigerants, were investigated in terms of their cooling properties in an AMR-cycle system. As a results, feature of the cooling properties with both materials were clarified. The Gd alloys are evidently suitable for the generation of large temperature differences, in contrast to the La(Fe,Si) 13 -based compounds, which exhibit good heat-load properties. Numerical calculations support these experimental results and indicate that multi-layered structures composed of the La(Fe,Si) 13 -based compounds with gradually varying Curie temperatures are effective at increasing the temperature difference and also demonstrate good heat-load properties. The optimization of magnetic refrigerants such as these is expected to result in new environmentally-friendly cooling systems.