BackgroundPanax ginsengis a perennial herb and one of the most widely used traditional medicines in China. During its long growth period, it is affected by various environmental factors. Past studies have shown that growth-regulating factors (GRFs) andGRF-interacting factors (GIFs) are involved in regulating plant growth and development, responding to environmental stress, and responding to the induction of exogenous hormones. However,GRFandGIFtranscription factors in ginseng have not been reported.ResultsIn this study, 20GRFgene members of ginseng were systematically identified and found to be distributed on 13 chromosomes. The ginsengGIFgene family has only ten members, which are distributed on ten chromosomes. Phylogenetic analysis divided thesePgGRFsinto six clades andPgGIFsinto two clades. In total, 18 of the 20PgGRFsand eight of the tenPgGIFsare segmental duplications. MostPgGRFandPgGIFgene promoters contain some hormone- and stress- related cis-regulatory elements. Based on the available public RNA-Seq data, the expression patterns ofPgGRFandPgGIFgenes were analysed from 14 different tissues. The responses of thePgGRFgene to different hormones (6-BA, ABA, GA3, IAA) and abiotic stresses (cold, heat, drought, and salt) were studied. The expression of thePgGRFgene was significantly upregulated under GA3 induction and three weeks of heat treatment. The expression level of thePgGIFgene changed only slightly after one week of heat treatment.ConclusionsThe results of this study may be helpful for further study of the function ofPgGRFandPgGIFgenes and lay a foundation for further study of their role in the growth and development ofPanax ginseng.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-023-09435-w.