a b s t r a c tThe compositional dependence of the glass forming ability (GFA), the correlation between their GFA and the GFA related parameters, and the thermal stability of the Ce-Al-Ni alloys were investigated. Rapidly quenched Ce 65 Al x Ni 35 − x (x = 2, 5, 10, 17, 20) and Ce 70 Al x Ni 30 − x (x = 2, 5, 10, 15, 20) ribbons were prepared by melt spinning, and their phase transformations were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The experimental results indicated that the GFA of Ce 65 Al x Ni 35 − x (x = 2, 5, 10, 17, 20) and Ce 70 Al x Ni 30 − x (x = 2, 5, 10, 15, 20) alloys increased firstly and then decreased with the increasing of the Al content up to 20 at.%, respectively. It was found that only one parameter, F 1 , in evaluated currently available empirical GFA parameters searching for metallic glasses with a good GFA, can reflect the GFA of the Ce-Al-Ni alloys. It was indicated that the thermal stability of alloy with fully amorphous maybe lower than that of alloy with partial amorphous.