Lateral forces or torsion combined with major axis bending result in a stress gradient across the compression flanges of I-shaped flexural members. Sources that cause significant stress gradient include situations where unequal reactions come to opposite sides of a girder or beams that frame into one side of a girder, skewed bridge girder supports, wind loading on facia girders, curvature induced warping, etc. In this study, three sets of support conditions are considered for evaluating the elastic buckling capacity of flanges of I-shaped beams subjected to a stress gradient. This includes a Galerkin series solution that considers the full width of the flange plate with a variable rotational stiffness along the center of the plate. For a stress gradient leading to tension over part of the flange, equations for predicting the buckling capacity are developed using finite element analyses. Simplified equations are developed for I-shaped cross sections, and numerical examples are used to demonstrate the accuracy of the solution. A definition of the noncompact limit for flanges of I-shaped beams and girders subjected to stress gradient is presented. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.