Cobalt oxyhydroxide (CoOOH) nanorods were synthesized by fast hydrothermal process for supercapacitor electrodes. The structural and morphological studies revealed the formation of CoOOH with hexagonal rhomb-centered crystal structure and excellent rod like morphology of ∼5–10nm diameter. The electrochemical characterization was performed for both half cell and symmetric full cell configuration using cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge/discharge test and impedance spectroscopy in 3M KOH aqueous electrolyte. The fabricated CoOOH electrodes showed maximum specific capacitance value of 198Fg−1 for a half cell and 94Fg−1 for a symmetric capacitor of 10mgcm−2 active material per electrode and showed better energy and power densities. Moreover, the CoOOH electrode exhibits good capacitance retention (83%) after 5000 charge/discharge cycles.