During the design process, a problem is encountered that a reinforced concrete (RC) beam with conventional shear reinforcement cannot provide the required shear demand due to the limitation of beam sizes from both architectural and structural perspectives. Recently, vertical embedded steel plates have been used to increase the shear capacity of RC beams, especially for coupling beams. In this paper, the behavior of RC composite beams with embedded vertical steel plates was studied and the performance of these beams was also compared to that of RC beams with conventional shear reinforcement. Three RC simply supported beams were tested under monotonic vertical loading at mid-span up to failure. Two of these beams were provided with embedded vertical steel plates inside the section while one specimen was kept as a control specimen without any steel plates. In order to enhance the composite action between the steel plate and the concrete section, Two methods were implemented including welding shear studs on both sides of the steel plate and welding diagonal steel bars to the plate surface. It was found that adding an embedded steel plate in RC beams enhanced their performance regarding shear capacity and ductility. Shear connectors were found to have a great influence on beam behavior and diagonal steel bars welded to the steel plate had the highest shear strength.