A honeycomb filter includes a pillar-shaped honeycomb fired body having first and second end faces on a gas inlet and outlet sides, respectively. A catalyst supporting layer is formed in a catalyst-supporting-layer area covering about 25% to about 90% of an overall length of the honeycomb fired body and abutting the first end face on the gas inlet side. Substantially no catalyst supporting layer is formed in a non-catalyst-supporting-layer area covering about 10% of the overall length on the gas outlet side. A thermal conductivity of the non-catalyst-supporting-layer area is higher than that of the catalyst-supporting-layer area, and inequalities, (a−b)≦about 5, and about 10≦a≦about 20 are satisfied where “a” is a mode of pore diameters obtained by measuring pore distribution of the non-catalyst-supporting-layer area and “b” is a mode of pore diameters obtained by measuring pore distribution of the catalyst-supporting-layer area.