An elastic Bernoulli–Euler beam model is developed for thermal-mechanical vibration and buckling instability of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) conveying fluid and resting on an elastic medium by using the theories of thermal elasticity mechanics and nonlocal elasticity. The differential quadrature method is adopted to obtain the numerical solutions to the model. The effects of temperature change, nonlocal parameter and elastic medium constant on the vibration frequency and buckling instability of SWCNT conveying fluid are investigated. It can be concluded that at low or room temperature, the first natural frequency and critical flow velocity for the SWCNT increase as the temperature change increases, on the contrary, while at high temperature the first natural frequency and critical flow velocity decrease with the increase of the temperature change. The first natural frequency for the SWCNT decreases as the nonlocal parameter increases, both the first natural frequency and critical flow velocity increase with the increase of the elastic medium constant.