The present invention provides a photothermographic material having, on at least one side of a support, an image forming layer including at least a photosensitive silver halide, a non-photosensitive organic silver salt, a reducing agent, and a binder, and a non-photosensitive outermost layer which is disposed on the same side of the support as the image forming layer, wherein the non-photosensitive outermost layer contains a copolymer having at least the following monomer (M1) and monomer (M2) as copolymerization components, and a maximum surface roughness (Rt) on the image forming layer side is 1.5 .mu.m or less; wherein monomer (M1) is a monomer having a salt or salt forming group, or a poly(alkylene oxide) group and having an unsaturated bond which performs radical polymerization; and monomer (M2) is a monomer containing a fluorine atom and having an unsaturated bond which performs radical polymerization. An image forming method is also provided.