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The heat and mass transfer characteristics of a monolith reactor influence both its light-off performance and the steady-state temperature and concentration profiles. The transient behavior of an adiabatic monolith reactor is bounded by two limiting channel geometries: (a) cylindrical passages and (b) slits confined between parallel plates. These geometries represent extremes in heat/mass transfer characteristics for monolith channels and, therefore, allow the analysis of light-off behavior for the practical range of geometries and process conditions in automobile exhausts. Also, these two geometries allow an analytical solution for the velocity, concentration and temperature profiles in the gas phase. This study analyzes the light-off performance of monolith reactors with comparable voidage and surface area using automotive exhaust oxidation kinetics. The energy balance for the solid walls includes all three modes of heat transport: convection, conduction and radiation.