diff --git a/python/paddle/fluid/tests/unittests/test_glu.py b/python/paddle/fluid/tests/unittests/test_glu.py
index b5cf6f3dca8b3..64318858d1902 100644
--- a/python/paddle/fluid/tests/unittests/test_glu.py
+++ b/python/paddle/fluid/tests/unittests/test_glu.py
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ def glu_axis_size(self):
         paddle.nn.functional.glu(x, axis=256)
 
     def test_errors(self):
-        self.assertRaises(AssertionError, self.glu_axis_size)
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, self.glu_axis_size)
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
diff --git a/python/paddle/nn/functional/activation.py b/python/paddle/nn/functional/activation.py
index 934817e764f5a..9d18c2386414c 100644
--- a/python/paddle/nn/functional/activation.py
+++ b/python/paddle/nn/functional/activation.py
@@ -1622,7 +1622,13 @@ def glu(x, axis=-1, name=None):
     check_variable_and_dtype(
         x, 'input', ['float16', 'float32', 'float64'], "glu"
     )
-    assert axis < len(x.shape), "axis must < rank(x)"
+    rank = len(x.shape)
+    if not (-rank <= axis < rank):
+        raise ValueError(
+            "Expected value range of `axis` is [{}, {}), but received axis: {}".format(
+                -rank, rank, axis
+            )
+        )
     a, b = chunk(x, 2, axis=axis, name=name)
     gate = sigmoid(b, name=name)
     out = paddle.multiply(a, gate, name=name)