Abstract As a new composite welding heat source introduced in recent years, the cross-coupling arc uses a non-consumable electrode arc (plasma arc) and a consumable electrode arc (inter-wire arc) in cross-coupling, in which the plasma arc is the main arc and the inter-wire arc is the vice arc, to realize the separate control of the heat input to the workpiece, arc force, and droplet transfer. To reveal the electrical characteristics of the inter-wire arc under the action of the plasma arc, in this study, rotating probes are used to sweep across the plasma arc. When the probes rotate into the plasma arc, a circuit is formed, and the electrical characteristics of the inter-wire arc are indirectly analyzed according to the circuit: the probe centering current and input voltage are used as the physical quantities. The results show that at a certain wire feed rate, the inter-wire arc current increases with increasing input voltage. When the input voltage is low, the wire feed rate has no obvious effect on the inter-wire arc current. At a higher input voltage, where the wire feed rate is high, the inter-wire arc current decreases. With the increase in the plasma arc current, the inter-wire arc current first increases quickly and then increases slowly, and simultaneously, the striking arc time becomes longer. With the increase in the interval between the nozzle and the workpiece, the inter-wire arc current increases, but when the arc length increases to a certain limit, the slope of the welding current clearly declines.