The Jaynes–Cummings model with or without rotating-wave approximation plays a major role to study the interaction between atom and light. We investigate the Jaynes–Cummings model beyond the rotating-wave approximation. Treating the counter-rotating terms as periodic drivings, we solve the model in the extended Floquet space. It is found that the full energy spectrum folded in the quasi-energy bands can be described by an effective Hamiltonian derived in the high-frequency regime. In contrast to the Z ₂ symmetry of the original model, the effective Hamiltonian bears an enlarged U(1) symmetry with a unique photon-dependent atom-light detuning and coupling strength. We further analyze the energy spectrum, eigenstate fidelity and mean photon number of the resultant polaritons, which are shown to be in accordance with the numerical simulations in the extended Floquet space up to an ultra-strong coupling regime and are not altered significantly for a finite atom-light detuning. Our results suggest that the effective model provides a good starting point to investigate the rich physics brought by counter-rotating terms in the frame of Floquet theory.