Provided are a gate driving circuit, a display substrate, a display device and a gate driving method, the gate driving circuit includes: a frequency doubling control circuit and an effective output circuit including first shift registers, the first shift register at the first stage has a first signal input terminal coupled with an output control signal line and a second signal input terminal coupled with the frequency doubling control circuit; the frequency doubling control circuit is coupled to the output control signal line, for providing a frequency doubling control signal thereto after a preset time period from the receipt of the output control signal in response to an output control signal from the output control signal line; the first shift register at the first stage outputs a scanning signal in response to the output control signal and a scanning signal in response to the frequency doubling control signal.