Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has a broad application prospect in detecting the leakage area of water supply pipeline. In order to enhance the understanding of the response characteristics of GPR in the leakage area and improve the positioning accuracy of the leakage area, based on the finite difference time domain method, this paper simulated the response characteristics of ground penetrating radar for leakage at the bottom of metal pipes, and extracted the "three instantaneous" seismic attribution. The results show that the upper boundary signal of the leakage area is easy to be identified, and the internal signal has multiple reflections and oscillations. The reflection effect of the instantaneous amplitude attribution in the leakage area is similar to that of the original profile. The instantaneous phase attribution is obviously staggered, and the instantaneous frequency attribution is obviously attenuated. Instantaneous phase attribution and instantaneous frequency attribution can reflect the existence of leakage area and weak signal well, so the instantaneous phase attribution and instantaneous frequency attribution are preferred when analyzing the instantaneous attribution of leakage area. The research results can provide a reference for the interpretation of GPR pipeline leakage detection images and practical engineering applications.