The aim of this work is to establish the coefficient that defines the critical buckling load for isotropic annular plates of variable thickness whose outer boundary is simply supported and subjected to uniform pressure. It is assumed that the plate thickness varies in a continuous way, according to an exponential law. The eigenvalues are determined using an optimized Rayleigh-Ritz method with polynomial coordinate functions which identically satisfy the boundary conditions at the outer edge. Good engineering agreement is shown to exist between the obtained results and buckling parameters presented in the technical literature.