This paper focuses on an understanding of the influence of paper thickness on the electrochemical performances of graphene papers as an anode for lithium ion batteries. Three types of graphene papers, with thickness of similar to 1.5, 3 and 10 mu m, respectively, were fabricated by vacuum-assisted filtration of reduced graphene nanosheets suspended in water. These papers deliver evidently different lithium storage capacities, with thinner papers always outperform thicker ones. The 1.5 mu m paper gives rise to initial reversible specific capacities (the first 10 cycles) of similar to 200 mAh g(-1) at a current density of 100 mA g(-1), while the 10 mu m paper only presents similar to 80 mAh g(-1) at a current density of 50 mA g(-1). After 100 cycles, a specific capacity of similar to 180 mAh g(-1) is retained for the 1.5 mu m paper; in contrast, only similar to 65 mAh g(-1) remains for the 10 mu m paper. The capacity decline with the paper thickness is associated with the dense restacking of graphene nanosheets and a large aspect ratio of the paper. The effective Li+ diffusion distance in graphene paper is mainly controlled by the thickness of the paper, and the diffusion proceeds mainly in in-plane direction, cross plane diffusion is restrained. As such, the effective contact of graphene nanosheets with electrolyte is limited and the efficiency of carbon utilization is very low in the thick papers. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.