•Glass microsphere was used to prepare thermal resistance asphalt mixture.•The thermal conductivity of asphalt mixture reduced by 23.8%.•The internal temperature of the thermal resistance pavement reduced.•The rutting depth of the middle and bottom layers reduced by a maximum of 8.5%. In this paper, glass microsphere (GM) was used to prepare thermal resistance asphalt mixture (TRAM) by replacing limestone mineral filler (LMF). The mixture was applied in the top layer of asphalt pavement to decrease the solar radiation transferring into asphalt pavement. The thermal, elastic and creep parameters of TRAM were obtained using a series of laboratory tests. Based on the above parameters, the heat transfer and rutting models of thermal resistance asphalt pavement (TRAP) were established. The results show that completely replacing LMF with GM in asphalt mixture resulted in thermal conductivity decreasing by 23.8% and specific heat capacity increasing by 10.6%. Compared with control asphalt pavement, the heat absorption of the designed pavement at the depth of 4 cm decreased by a maximum of 5.5% and the maximum temperature reduced up to 1.7 °C (at 12:00 p.m.). The cooling effect of thermal resistance pavement was verified by an indoor irradiation test. The rutting depth of the middle and bottom layers in the TRAP reduced by a maximum of 8.5% after 500 thousand times of standard axis load were applied. Due to the excellent thermal resistance effect, GM can be used to reduce the internal temperature of asphalt pavement and improve the rutting resistance of asphalt pavement.