In this article, the buckling of multilayer rectangular thick plate made of functionally graded, transversely isotropic and piezoelectric materials in both closed and open circuit conditions are investigated. Based on the shear and normal higher-order deformation theory, the governing equilibrium equations of plate are obtained using the principle of minimum total potential energy and Maxwell’s equation. Using an analytical approach, the governing stability equations of functionally graded rectangular plates with piezoelectric layers have been presented in terms of displacement components and electric potentials. In order to obtain the stability equations, the adjacent equilibrium criterion is used. The stability equations are then solved analytically, assuming simply support boundary condition along all edges. Finally after ensuring the validation of the results, the effects of different parameters such as different loading conditions, functionally graded power law index, thickness-to-length ratio and aspect ratio, on the critical buckling loads of plates are studied in details. Furthermore, the effect of piezoelectric thickness on the plate critical buckling loads has been studied. The results present better accuracy in comparison with the classic and third order shear theories.