An exhaust gas cleaning catalyst comprising: a carrier substrate; a catalyst carrying layer formed on the carrier substrate; and a noble metal catalyst carried by the catalyst carrying layer; wherein said catalyst carrying layer comprises at least two layers, and of the at least two layers, lower layer on the side of the carrier substrate is a metal oxide layer with porosity of 40.about.75% and upper layer on the side of the top surface is a metal oxide layer having thermal conductivity of 5 W/mK or less.