Abstract Recent observations of ultra-hot Jupiters with dayside temperatures in excess of 2500 K have found evidence for new physical processes at play in their atmospheres. In this work, we investigate the effects of the dissociation of molecular hydrogen and recombination of atomic hydrogen on the atmospheric circulation of ultra-hot Jupiters. To do so, we incorporate these effects into a general circulation model (GCM) for hot Jupiter atmospheres and run a large suite of models varying the incident stellar flux, rotation period, and strength of frictional drag. We find that including hydrogen dissociation and recombination reduces the fractional day-to-night temperature contrast of ultra-hot Jupiter atmospheres and causes the speed of the equatorial jet to decrease in simulations with fixed rotation. This is because the large energy input required for hydrogen dissociation cools the dayside of the planet, and the energy released due to hydrogen recombination warms the nightside. The resulting decrease in the day-to-night temperature contrast reduces the day-to-night pressure gradient that drives the circulation, resulting in weaker wind speeds. The results from our GCM experiments qualitatively agree with previous theory that found that the fractional day–night temperature contrast of ultra-hot Jupiters should decrease with increasing equilibrium temperature owing to hydrogen dissociation and recombination. Lastly, we compute full-phase light curves from our suite of GCM experiments, finding that the reduced day-to-night temperature contrast in ultra-hot Jupiter atmospheres causes a smaller phase curve amplitude. The reduction in phase curve amplitude due to hydrogen dissociation and recombination could explain the relatively small phase curve amplitudes of observed ultra-hot Jupiters.