Cluster-based materials are candidate materials for solid-state hydrogen storage owing to their special geometric and electronic structures. The surface adsorption and the encapsulated storage of H-2 molecules in a cagelike (MgO)(12) cluster have been studied using density functional theory (DFT) calculations including a dispersion interaction. The results revealed that the cagelike (MgO)(12) cluster surface can adsorb 24 H-2 molecules with an average adsorption energy of 0.116 eV/H-2, which brings about a gravimetric density of 9.1 wt%. Compared with dispersion-corrected DFT calculations, the traditional DFT method substantially underestimates the surface adsorption strength. According to symmetric configurations, a maximum capacity of six H-2 molecules can be stored in the interior space of the cagelike (MgO)(12) cluster. The encapsulated H-2 molecules are trapped by stepwise energy barriers of 0.433-2.550 eV, although the storage is an endothermic process. The present study will be beneficial for hydrogen storage in cagelike clusters and assembled porous materials. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.