Abstract: Existing studies on climate-vegetation coupling in the Qinling Mountains primarily focus on the station scale, lacking a fine-scale comparative analysis of the general, key, and core protected areas in the region. Therefore, these studies are insufficient to reveal the mechanisms underlying the differential responses of vegetation in the three-level protected areas to warming and humidification. Based on meteorological and remote sensing data from 2000 to 2024, this study systematically assessed the climate-vegetation coupling characteristics of the Qinling Mountains and its three-level protected areas using pixel-scale trend analysis and the Pearson correlation coefficient. The results indicate that from 2000 to 2024, the whole Qinling Mountains showed synchronous warming and humidification overall, with an average warming rate of 0.343 ℃/10 a and an increasing rate of precipitation determined at 59.675 mm/10 a. The general protected areas exhibited the highest increasing rate of high temperature and the greatest increase in precipitation. In contrast, the core protected areas manifested the highest increasing rate of average temperature and the weakest increase in humidification due to their high altitudes. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values averaged 0.862 across the whole region. The NDVI values of the three-level protected areas decreased in the order of key, core, and general protected areas, exhibiting a gradient distribution. The Qinling Mountains exhibited a greening rate of 0.029/10 a overall, with improvements occurring in 92.52% of the region and degradation primarily concentrated in areas with intensive human activities. Positive correlation between NDVI and average annual temperature was observed in 92.57% of the region (up to 95.73% of the key protected areas). In contrast, the correlation between NDVI and extreme temperature was significantly weaker while also exhibiting prominent spatial differentiation. The positive correlation between NDVI and annual precipitation was observed in 92.31% of the region (up to 94.09% of the general protected areas). The average annual temperature acted as the dominant climatic factor inducing changes in regional vegetation, followed by precipitation, with extreme temperatures exerting a limited impact. The core protected areas exhibited the most significant negative correlations of NDVI with temperature and precipitation, indicating that the primordial ecosystem is more vulnerable to climate fluctuations. Overall, this study determines the different driving effects of climatic factors on NDVI across varying protected areas of the Qinling Mountains. The results of this study provide data support and a scientific basis for the differential management of ecological protection zones in the Qinling Mountains while also offering a case reference for investigating climate-vegetation coupling mechanisms in mountain ecosystems.