Determination of trace element arsenic in high purity nickel by GFAAS in STPF conditions is described in this paper. The dry time, ashing temperature and atomization temperature are obtained by optimization process. The standard solutions are matched to eliminate the influences of matrix nickel, and nickel is also as the chemical matrix modifier in the detected. The characteristic mass of the method is 1.9 pg, the average relative standard deviation is 1.4%, the recovery rate is in the range of 95%-103%.