Pulsed-RF-glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GDOES) is a kind of atomic spectroscopy technology based on the principle of glow discharge, which is widely used to characterize the depth distribution of components in thin-film materials and functional multilayer structures. This technique has the advantages of low vacuum requirement, high sensitivity, and fast sputtering rate. Meanwhile, the instantaneous high-power mode adopted by the pulsed RF power supply makes the periodical bombardment of the sample surface by argon ions, which avoids the melting or carbonization caused by heat accumulation. Therefore, the pulsed-RF-GDOES can be used to analyse the thermal sensitive materials, soft or brittle materials, etc., extending the application range of glow discharge emission spectrum from conductive materials to semiconductor and insulator ones. It is an ideal technique for depth profiling of organic films. As a kind of multilayer composite material, aluminum plastic film is an important packaging material with temperature, weather, water, and acid-base resistance. It has been widely used in packaging food, electronics, and national defense cutting-edge products. In this paper, the depth profiles of high barrier aluminum-plastic films are measured using GDOES. The depth resolution, sputtering rate and signal-to-noise ratio of the measured GDOES depth profiles are quantitatively analyzed under different working parameters to obtain the optimized working parameters. The depth resolution, sputtering rate and signal-to-noise ratio of the GDOES depth profile are calculated quantitatively, with the aluminum signal having relatively high intensity as a calibration peak. The experimental results show that the thermal effect could be significantly reduced by applying the pulsed-radio-frequency power and the mixture gas of Ar and O₂, thus expanding the adjustment range of the working parameters. The sputtering rate increases with increasing the sputtering power and gas pressure, the sputtering rate increases; The relationship between depth resolution and power values is a nonmonotonic function with some inflection points. When the sputtering power is 40 W, the depth resolution is optimized; When the sputtering pressure is higher than 950 Pa, the depth resolution is unchanged; With increasing the sputtering power, signal-to-noise ratio increases; with increasing the gas pressure, signal-to-noise ratio decreases. The depth resolution and signal-to-noise ratio are much better by using the mixture gas of Ar and O₂ (4 Vol%) than that using the pure Ar gas. The optimized working parameters for the GDOES depth profiling of aluminum plastic film are mixture gas of Ar and O₂, working pressure of 950 Pa, power of 40 W, pulsed frequency of 3 000 Hz, the duty cycle of 0.187 5.