•Visit-to-visit blood pressure variability in the second/third trimester or during the whole pregnancy were independently associated with gestational hypertension (GH) and pre-eclampsia (PE).•Visit-to-visit blood pressure variability increased from the second to the third trimester, and the increasement in hypertensive participants was enlarged.•Adding coefficient variance of systolic blood pressure to conventional risk model could facilitate identification for pregnant woman at high risk of GH or PE. Visit-to-visit blood pressure variability (VVV) was an independent risk factor for cardiovascular events. In pregnant women whose hemodynamic changes are unique, the role of VVV in hypertensive disorders is still obscure. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the association of VVV with gestational hypertension (GH) and pre-eclampsia (PE). 14,702 pregnant women were recruited at around 13 weeks of their gestation. VVV during the second, third trimester and the whole pregnancy, were estimated as standard deviation (SD) or coefficient of variation (CV) of systolic blood pressure (SBP) or diastolic blood pressure (DBP). The associations between VVV, GH and PE were assessed by multivariate logistic regression models. 878 and 131 women developed GH and PE, respectively. VVV was significantly higher in GH and PE subjects than normotensive controls, regardless of whichever metric was calculated. In maximally adjusted models, odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of SBP-CV during the whole pregnancy was 1.62 (1.56–1.68) for GH, 1.14 (1.06–1.21) for PE, and 1.51 (1.47–1.56) for either GH or PE. The cooperation of SBP-CV to other risk factors could help in discriminating pregnant women at high risk of GH and PE. VVV during pregnancy, especially SBP-CV, was independently associated with GH and PE. These results suggested that VVV could provide additional information to identify pregnant women at high risk of GH or PE. Further studies exploring prospective association between VVV, GH and PE are warranted.