The current study reports the thermal buckling, vibration and acoustic characteristics of functionally graded graphene polymer layer composite plates subjected to the in-plane temperature variance. The macroscopic properties of the composites are evaluated using the modified rule of mixtures to compute the layer-wise properties of an functionally graded graphene polymer layer composite plate. The critical buckling temperature is computed and compared for various functional gradings, boundary conditions and in-plane temperature variances. The in-plane temperature variance showed a major impact on the critical thermal buckling temperature and respective mode shapes. The vibro-acoustic behaviour of the functionally graded graphene polymer layer composite plate is investigated and documented keeping critical buckling temperature as a function. With an increase in thermal load and the nature of in-plane temperature variance, the vibro-acoustic results showed significant difference in velocity and acoustic response. For functionally graded graphene polymer layer composite plate with one free edge, the difference was statistically significant as indicated by an octave band plot. We conclude that the portion of the functionally graded graphene polymer layer composite plate that is subjected to the higher temperature in an in-plane temperature variance, as well as the nature of the boundary conditions may exacerbate the effect of in-plane temperature variance and are crucial in predicting vibro-acoustic characteristics.