diff --git a/paddle/operators/activation_op.h b/paddle/operators/activation_op.h
index 0885f7c570b9b52dc51597347295734fd689da8d..88c3d1c597a853abdee7753a5110be4a1726e905 100644
--- a/paddle/operators/activation_op.h
+++ b/paddle/operators/activation_op.h
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ limitations under the License. */
 #pragma once
 #include "paddle/framework/eigen.h"
 #include "paddle/framework/op_registry.h"
+#include "paddle/operators/detail/safe_ref.h"
 
 namespace paddle {
 namespace operators {
@@ -26,12 +27,16 @@ class ActivationKernel
   using T = typename Functor::ELEMENT_TYPE;
 
   void Compute(const framework::ExecutionContext& context) const override {
-    auto* X = context.Input<framework::Tensor>("X");
-    auto* Out = context.Output<framework::Tensor>("Out");
-    Out->mutable_data<T>(context.GetPlace());
-
-    auto x = framework::EigenVector<T>::Flatten(*X);
-    auto out = framework::EigenVector<T>::Flatten(*Out);
+    auto& X = detail::Ref(context.Input<framework::Tensor>("X"),
+                          "Cannot get input tensor X, variable name = %s",
+                          context.op().Input("X"));
+
+    auto& Out = detail::Ref(context.Output<framework::Tensor>("Out"),
+                            "Cannot get output tensor Out, variable name = %s",
+                            context.op().Output("Out"));
+    Out.mutable_data<T>(context.GetPlace());
+    auto x = framework::EigenVector<T>::Flatten(X);
+    auto out = framework::EigenVector<T>::Flatten(Out);
     auto* place =
         context.template device_context<DeviceContext>().eigen_device();
     Functor functor;