Plants are exposed to a wide range of temperatures during their life cycle and need to continuously adapt. These adaptations need to deal with temperature changes on a daily and seasonal level and with temperatures affected by climate change, and need to take into account that different organs have different optimal temperature ranges. Increasing global temperatures impact crop performance, and several physiological and developmental responses to increased temperature have been described that allow to mitigate this. In this review, we assess various developmental, physiological and biochemical responses of crops to high temperature, focusing on knowledge gained from both monocots (e.g. wheat, barley, maize, rice) and dicots (e.g. soybean or tomato). We outline several outstanding questions where crop research can exploit knowledge from model plants, such as Arabidopsis thaliana, and we highlight that studying molecular mechanisms directly in relevant crops is essential.