We investigate the magnetic and electronic properties of the GdT 2 Zn 20 (T = Fe and Co) compounds using X-ray resonant magnetic scattering (XRMS), X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) techniques. The XRMS measurements reveal that the GdCo 2 Zn 20 compound has a commensurate antiferromagnetic spin structure with a magnetic propagation vector τ = ( 1 2 , 1 2 , 1 2 ) below the Néel temperature (T N ∼ 5.7 K). Only the Gd ions carry a magnetic moment forming an antiferromagnetic structure with magnetic representation Γ 6 . For the ferromagnetic GdFe 2 Zn 20 compound, an extensive investigation was performed at low temperature and under magnetic field using XANES and XMCD techniques. A strong XMCD signal of about 12.5 % and 9.7 % is observed below the Curie temperature (T C ∼ 85 K) at the Gd-L 2 and L 3 edges, respectively. In addition, a small magnetic signal of about 0.06 % of the jump is recorded at the Zn K-edge suggesting that the Zn 4p states are spin polarized by the Gd 5d extended orbitals.