Abstract: In order to effectively analyze the mechanical behavior of inhomogeneous functionally graded plates, a high-fidelity simplified model is developed based on variational asymptotic method (VAM). The 3D energy equation of functionally graded plate is established based on the expanded Hamilton principle. The 3D energy equation is asymptotically expanded into a series of 2D approximate energy equations by taking advantage of the inherent small parameters. The three-dimensional, anisotropic elasticity problem is rigorously decoupled into a one-dimensional through-the-thickness analysis and a two-dimensional plate analysis. The recovery relationships are provided to accurately predict the 3D field distribution along the thickness direction. The cylindrical bending example of SiC-Al functional gradient plate shows that the recovered 3D displacement and stress components agree well with 3D precise solutions; the present model is valid for large displacements and global rotations and can accurately capture all the geometric nonlinearity when the strains are small.