Influence of Zr addition on grain stability at elevated temperatures has been investigated for extruded pure Mg and Mg-0.25%Zr alloy. The grain size of pure Mg increases rapidly with increasing annealing temperature when isochronally annealed for 60 min from 573 to 773 K, whereas the grains are stable up to 723 K for the Zr-containing alloy. The activation energies for grain growth ($E_g$) at this temperature range were determined as 75.3 and 105.9 kJ/mole for the pure Mg and Mg-0.25%Zr alloy, respectively. TEM observations on the annealed Mg-Zr samples revealed that higher thermal stability and higher activation energy for grain growth resulting from Zr addition in Mg may well be associated with the restriction of grain growth by nano-sized Zr particles distributed in the microstructure.