It is not known when Ge Fuyuan was born, but it is known that he was from Bian Prefecture (汴州, roughly modern Kaifeng, Henan).
Ge Fuyuan's brother Ge Xiyuan (格希元) served on the staff of Wu Zetian's son Li Xian and participated in Li Xian's project to write commentaries for the Book of Later Han.
Ge Fuyuan passed the imperial examination when he was young, and served in successively higher offices.
As of 691, when Wu Zetian had already claimed the title of "emperor," establishing Zhou and interrupting Tang, Ge was serving as the imperial censor in charge of reviewing central government affairs (左肅政大夫, Zuo Suzheng Daifu) when Wu Zetian made him the minister of finance (地官尚書, Diguan Shangshu) and gave him the designation of Tong Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi (同鳳閣鸞臺平章事), making him a chancellor de facto.
In late 691, Ge, Cen, and another chancellor Ouyang Tong were arrested by Wu Zetian's secret police official Lai Junchen and executed.