The Strain rate effect in electro-magnetic forming, which is one of the high velocity forming methods, is studied by the finite element method in this paper. The forming process is simplified by neglecting the coupling between magnetic field and work-piece deformation, and the impulsive magnetic pressure is regarded as inner pressure load. A rate-dependent elasto-plastic material model, of which tangential modulus depends of effective strain rate, is proposed. The model is shown to well describe the transient increase of yield stresses, the decreases of the final displacement and yield stress, the decrease of the difference in the distribution of deformation along the axial direction, and the change of deformation mechanism due to strain rate effect. As a result, displacement, final deformed shape, radial velocity, deformation energy, and the changes of effective stress, effective strain and effective strain rate through plastic working are given. Based on the results, the effectiveness of this model and the strain rate effect of the deformation process of the work-piece are discussed.