Friedel-Crafts acylation of indole with acetic anhydride has been carried out over zeolites under microwave and conventional heating, respectively. A tungstophosphoric acid modified H beta (PW-H beta) zeolite showed better catalytic performance than parent H beta zeolite due to its higher amount of strongly acidic sites and lower amount of Lewis acid sites, confirmed from NH3 temperature-programmed desorption (NH3-TPD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer after adsorption of pyridine (Py-IR). Particularly, microwave radiation was found to make this transformation not only more efficient but also selective to 3-acetylindole compared with conventional heating. Furthermore, PW-H beta has shown good stability in this reaction. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.