The dynamic buckling of rectangular plates with the elastically restrained edges subjected to in-plane impact loading is investigated. Budiansky–Hutchinson criterion is employed for calculation of dynamic buckling loads. The displacement function concluding the elastically restrained boundary condition is expressed as Navier’s double Fourier series. In order to solve the large deformation equations of plate, Galerkin method is applied. Also, the non-linear coupled time integration of the governing equation of plate is solved by using fourth-order Runge–Kutta method. The correctness of the method presented in the paper has been validated by comparing the results with the published literature. It is proved that the rotational restraint stiffness that is usually ignored by previous researchers plays an important role in dynamic response and dynamic buckling of the rectangular plates subjected to in-plane impact loading. Furthermore, the influence of the other parameters (initial imperfections, impact duration and geometric dimensions) on the dynamic response and dynamic buckling is studied in detail.