A photoactive analog of ATP, 3`(2`)-O-(p-azidobenzoyl)-adenosine 5-triphosphate (AB-ATP) was synthesized by chemically coupling N-hydroxysuccinimidyl-4-azidobenzoate (NHS-AB) and ATP. The utility of AB-ATP as an effective active-site-directed photoprobe was demonstrated using catalytic subunit of protein kinase A as a model enzyme. Photoincorporation of AB-ATP was saturated with apparent dissociation constant of 30 ~M and protected completely by 100 PM of ATP. When the enzyme was covalently modified by photolysis in the presence of saturating amounts of photoprobe, about 60% inhibition of enzyme activity was observed. These results demonstrate that AB-ATP has potential application as a probe to characterize ATP-binding proteins including protein kinases.