The dynamic stability of rotating thin conical shells under periodic axial force is studied in this paper. Based on Donnell’s thin shell theory, the motion equation of rotating conical shell is derived. The parametric instability of the system under periodic axial load is analyzed by using the generalized differential quadrature method and Hill’s method. The variations of several instability regions with working conditions and geometric parameters are discussed. The results show that the instability region moves along the frequency axis with the increase of the rotating speed, but the instability width has little effect. Increasing the constant tensile axial load will not only significantly increase the instability width, but also cause the instability region shift to a higher frequency range. The variation of cone angle, thickness to diameter ratio or length to diameter ratio will cause the instability region to move along the frequency axis. Cone angle and thickness diameter ratio will increase the width of instability (length diameter ratio will decrease). With the increase of the number of circumferential waves, the influence of cone angle on the instability region gradually weakens, while the influence of thickness diameter ratio remains unchanged.