A new type of hierarchical tin@carbon composite composed of graphene carbonaceous matrix and well-confined tin nanoparticles with a typical size of ~15nm (denoted as F-G/Sn@C) is developed and investigated as anode material for Li-ion and Na-ion storage. The two dimensional graphene backboned matrix not only acts as a confinement layer preventing the tin nanoparticles from aggregating during the material preparation, but also functions as a physical barrier to buffer the volume change effect during charge/discharge processes. As a consequence, the composite demonstrates excellent rate performance and cycling stability for both Li-ion and Na-ion storage. In particular, the F-G/Sn@C anode exhibits an impressive reversible capacity of 506mAh g−1 even after 500 cycles and a high-rate capacity of 270mAh g−1 even at 3200mAg−1 for Li-ion storage. Moreover, a reversible Na-ion storage capacity of 413 mAh g−1 with negligible fading is also achieved. The remarkable electrochemical performance, together with the facile synthetic approach for large scale production, enables such material as a highly attractive tin-based anode for next generation rechargeable batteries.