A new type of apparatus for materials testing in high-pressure hydrogen up to 10 MPa at low temperatures down to 20 K was developed. The apparatus consists of the pressure vessel, cooled by a two-step external cooling method, and the hydraulic loading system. In the first cooling step the specimen in the pressure vessel is cooled to 84 K using a cooling tube between the coolant shroud filled with liquid nitrogen and the pressure vessel. In the second cooling step the specimen is cooled to 20 K using a helium refrigerator. The apparatus is designed to measure the actual load on the specimen with an external load cell irrespective of the axial load caused by high pressure and friction at the sliding seals. As an example of the application of the apparatus, the tensile properties of type 304L stainless steel in 1 MPa hydrogen and helium at low temperature are measured and hydrogen environment embrittlement of the steel is briefly discussed. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.