The design of efficient non-Pt counter electrode (CE) materials is highly desired in field of dye sensitized solar cell (DSC). Herein, by combining the catalytic features of N doped carbon (NC) and CoNi alloy, CoNi alloy incorporated porous N doped carbon hybrid (CoNi-NC) is synthesized for application as catalytic CE of DSC. Benefiting from the proper meso-/macroporosity with high electroactive surface area, the CoNiNC electrode demonstrates apparently highers electrocatalytic activity for iodine reduction reaction (IRR) over pyrolyzed Pt electrode. As a consequence, the DSC based on CoNi-NC CE yields a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.6%, which is superior over that of Pt CE based cell (7.2%), highlighting the bright potential of CoNi-NC in efficient and economical CE of DSC. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.