Exhaust gas cleaning catalyst

An exhaust gas cleaning catalyst which is disposed in the exhaust pathway of an internal combustion engine and cleans exhaust gas emitted by the internal combustion engine, wherein

• the exhaust gas cleaning catalyst comprises a cylindrical substrate and a catalyst coat layer formed on a surface of the substrate,
• a ratio of the length L in a cylindrical axis direction of the substrate and the diameter D of a cross section orthogonal to the cylindrical axis direction is denoted by (L/D)≤0.8,
• the coat density of the catalyst coat layer differs between an upstream side portion that includes an exhaust gas inlet-side end of the substrate and a downstream side portion that includes an exhaust gas outlet-side end of the substrate, and
• the coat density A in the upstream side portion is lower than the coat density B in the downstream side portion (A<B), wherein the catalyst coat layer contains an OSC material having oxygen storage capacity, and when an average coat density throughout the catalyst coat layer is denoted by C, the coat density A in the upstream side portion is denoted by 0.5 C≤A≤0.9 C.