The adsorption and desorption of N2O on main-group ion-exchanged ZSM-5 was studied using temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. TPD experiments were carried out to determine the desorbed temperature Tmax corresponding to the maximum mass intensity of N2O desorption peak and adsorption capacity of N2O on metal-ion-exchanged ZSM-5s. The results indicated that Tmax followed a sequence of Ba2+ ＞ Ca2+ ＞ Cs+ ＞ K+ ＞ Na+ ＞ Mg2+and the amount of adsorbed N2O on main-group metal cation followed a sequence of Ba2+ ＞ Mg2+ ＞ Ca2+ ＞ Na+ ＞ K+ ＞ Cs+. The DFT calculations were performed to obtain the adsorption energy (Eads), which represents the strength of the interaction between metal cations and the N-end or O-end of N2O. The calculation results showed that the N-end of the N2O molecule was favorably adsorbed on ion-exchanged ZSM-5, except for Cs-ZSM-5. For alkali metal cations, the Eads of N2O on cations followed the order which was the same to that of Tmax: Cs+ ＞ K+ ＞ Na+. The calculated and experimental results consistently showed that the adsorption performances of alkaline-earth metal cations were better than those of alkali metal cations.