The creep deformations developed in steel significantly affect the deformation and bearing capacity of steel structures in fire. However, such creep effect was not considered in fire-resistance calculation method of steel columns in current specification of Code for Fire Safety of Steel Structures in Buildings (GB 51249-2017). Load bearing capacity of steel columns at elevated temperature after considering creep effect was analyzed by ANSYS soft package. A comparative study is performed in this paper to compare the finite element results with measured data obtained from fire test,and it is found that the numerical results and measurements show good agreement when considering the creep effect. Subsequently, the validated model was used for parametric studies. It is shown that the initial imperfection (i.e., residual stress, geometric imperfection, and load eccentricity), bend direction, load ratio, slenderness ratio and heating rate have a significant influence on the load bearing capacity of steel columns when considering high temperature creep. In contrast, the load bearing capacity of steel columns is less sensitive to the section shape and yield strength of steel. A simple design method is proposed to calculate the load bearing capacity of steel columns at elevated temperature.