A gas detector for use in, for example, measuring the concentration of flammable gas or detecting leakage of flammable gas. The gas detector has a gas detection element in which at least a heat-generating resistor and an insulation layer are laminated on a semiconductor substrate made of silicon while the insulation layer encloses the heat-generating resistor. The gas detector detects flammable gas on the basis of temperature and resistance of the heat-generating resistor which vary according to flammable gas. In the gas detection element, a protection layer in the form of a gas impermeable oxide film is provided on its outermost surface which comes into contact with an environmental atmosphere that contains flammable gas. Thus, alkali resistance is ensured. Since the protection layer is impermeable to gas, entry of impurities (organic silicon) contained in the environmental atmosphere into the protection layer is restrained, whereby output is stabilized and becomes accurate.