The aim of present work is to address nonlinear dynamic thermal buckling of shallow spherical functionally graded porous shells subjected to transient thermal loading using the first order shear deformation theory (FSDT). A power-law distribution as well as cosine-type porosity distribution are used to model the variation of constituents through the shell thickness. Thermomechanical properties are assumed to be temperature dependent. Using Crank–Nicolson time marching scheme, an iterative procedure is employed to solve nonlinear transient heat conduction equation. For thermal boundary conditions, the outer surface of shells is kept at a reference temperature, while the inner surface experiences a sudden temperature rise. Geometrical type of nonlinearity in the sense of von-Karman is taken into account. The highly coupled nonlinear governing equations of motion are extracted by constructing the appropriate weak form and also using multi-term Ritz–Chebyshev method. The resulting ODEs are then reduced to a system of nonlinear algebraic equations by employing the well-known Newmark family of time integration schemes. The latter equations are solved by means of Newton–Raphson iteration procedure. Budiansky criterion is used to recognize critical parameters of dynamic instability of shells due to applied thermal shocks. Some comparison studies are conducted in order to verify the accuracy of results of the present work. Moreover, various parametric studies are performed to assess the influence of involved parameters.