The CrAlC coating has broad application prospects as a high temperature protective material due to its unique properties. However, it is difficult to control the properties of CrAlC coating due to the multiphase structure produced by thermally induced solid-reaction. In this paper, the CrAlC coating was prepared by filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) technology. In order to elucidate the relationship between the phase structure evolution and the properties, the structure, mechanical and electrochemical properties of the CrAlC coating before and after annealing were systematically investigated. The results illustrated that the CrAlC coating changed from amorphous structure to crystalline structure after annealing, and the phase composition varied with the increases of annealing temperature. As the annealing temperature increased from 700 °C to 800 °C, the content of Cr₂₃C₆ and Al₄C₃ increased. However, with further increasing the annealing temperature to 900 °C, the content of Al₄C₃ gradually decreased, and the Cr₂₃C₆ phase was transformed into Cr₇C₃ and Cr₃C₂ phases. In addition, the hardness and corrosion resistance of the coating first increased and then decreased with the increase of annealing temperature. When the annealing temperature was 800 °C, the CrAlC coating had the highest hardness (18.28 GPa) and the best corrosion resistance with the smallest corrosion current density (8.54 × 10^-9 A/cm²).