The variable demand on the energy market requires a great flexibility in operating hydro turbines. However, Francis turbine operated at off-design conditions poses technical challenges related to large unsteady forces given by residual swirl and angular momentum. In order to improve the performance of a Francis turbine, the paper presents a numerical investigation of the 3D flow in the turbine at off-design conditions and discusses the influence of variable guide vane openings on the internal flow of a Francis turbine with the help of computational fluid dynamics. First, the internal flow characteristics of Francis turbine operated by varied guide vane angle at off design condition are computed and the optimal guide vane angle is obtained. Secondly, the Francis turbine is operated with guide vane number varies at the optimal guide vane angle. Finally, pressure contours and velocity distributions in the distributor are discussed and compared.