An attempt was made to correlate the polymerization temperature and rheological and thermal properties of acrylonitrile (AN)-acrylamide (AM) copolymers. The copolymers were synthesized at different polymerization temperature. The copolymer structure was characterized by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and Infrared spectrum (IR). The rheological and thermal properties were investigated by a viscometer and differential scanning calorimeter-thermogrametric (DSC-TG) analysis, respectively. When the polymerization temperature increased from $41^{circ}C;to;65^{circ}C$, the molecular weight $(ar{M}_w)$ of copolymers decreased from 1,090,000 to 250,000, while its conversion increased from $18\%;to;63\%$, and the polymer composition changed slightly. To meet the requirements of carbon fibers, the rheological and thermal properties of products were also investigated. It was found that the relationship between viscosity and $ar{M}_w$ was nonlinear and the viscosity index (n) decreased from 3.13 to 2.69, when the solution temperature increased from $30^{circ}C;to;65^{circ}C$. This suggests the dependence of viscosity upon $ar{M}_w$ is higher at lower solution temperature. According to the result of activation energy, the sensivity of viscosity to solution temperature is higher for AN-AM copolymers synthesized at higher polymerization temperature. The result of thermal analysis shows that the copolymers obtained at higher polymerization temperature are easier to cyclization evidenced from lower initiation temperature. The weight loss behavior changed irregularly with polymerization temperature due to irregular change of liberation heat.