In this present work, the effect of additional heat-treatment (AHT) in the range from 1800oC to 2400oC on the chemical composition, morphology, microstructure, tensile properties, electrical resistivity, and thermal stability of commercial polyacrylonitrile (PAN)- based carbon fibers was explored by means of elemental analysis, electron microscopy, Xray diffraction analysis, single fiber tensile testing, two-probe electrical resistivity testing, and thermogravimetric analysis. The characterization results were in agreement with each other. The results clearly demonstrated that AHTs up to 2400oC played a significant role in further contributing not only to the enhancement of carbon content, fiber morphology, and tensile modulus, but also to the reduction of fiber diameter, inter-graphene layer distance, and electrical resistivity of “as-received” carbon fibers without AHT. The present study suggests that key properties of commercial PAN-based carbon fibers of an intermediate grade can be further improved by proprietarily adding heat-treatment without applying tension in a batch process.