Parametric instability of a riser is caused by fluctuation of its tension in time due to the heave motion of floating plat-form. Many studies have tackled the problem of parametric instability of a riser with constant tension. However, tension in the riser actually varies linearly from the top to the bottom due to the effect of gravity. This paper presents the parametric instability analysis of deepwater top-tensioned risers (TTR) considering the linearly varying tension along the length. Firstly, the governing equation of transverse motion of TTR under parametric excitation is established. This equation is reduced to a system of ordinary differential equations by using the Galerkin method. Then the parametric instability of TTR for three calculation models are investigated by ap-plying the Floquet theory. The results show that the natural frequencies of TTR with variable tension are evidently reduced, the pa-rametric instability zones are significantly increased and the maximum allowable amplitude of platform heave is much smaller under the same damping; The nodes and antinodes of mode shape are no longer uniformly distributed along the axial direction and the am-plitude also changes with depth, which leads to coupling between the modes. The combination resonance phenomenon occurs as a result of mode coupling, which causes more serious damage.