Heat and hypoxic treatments were combined with soaking to enhance γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) production in germinated paddy (GP). Effects of heating temperature, heating techniques, that is, impinging stream drying (ISD) and tray drying (TD), and germination time on the GABA content, phenolics content and antioxidant activity were also investigated. Heating temperature had a significant effect on the GABA content; both ISD and TD helped increase the GABA content when the post‐treatment grain temperature was 38–40.5 °C. Within this grain temperature range, soaking in combination with heat and hypoxic treatments (S‐ISD‐H and S‐TD‐H) yielded GP with higher GABA content than soaking (S) and soaking in combination with hypoxic treatment (S‐H). However, ISD was noted to be more suitable than TD. Phenolics content and antioxidant activity of GP prepared by S‐ISD‐H at different heating temperatures and S‐H were not significantly different but were higher than those of the GP prepared by S.