Cong-red dye is a precursor of various products of cotton industry and its toxicity in the aquatic environment is a great concern. Present study was highlighted on the efficacy of the fish scale char (FSC) towards removal of congo red from aqueous solution. The prepared FSC was characterized by zero point charge (pHZPC), scanning electron micrograph with elemental analysis (SEM-EDX) and fourier transform infrared (FTIR). Based in the equilibrium and kinetic study, the Langmuir (R2 = 0.967) and Pseudo-second-order (R2 = 1.00) models are appropriate to describe the dye adsorption process. The randomness and exothermic nature of the system were confirmed by the negative values of both entropy and enthalpy, respectively. Finally, optimization by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) study revealed that the experimental data were nicely fitted with central composite design with very high F value (F = 1596.24, p < 0.0001). Perturbation plot suggested that congo-red dye removal is more sensitive with respect to biosorbent dose, pH and initial concentration. The exhausted adsorbent was regenerated with 0.5(M) NaOH solution. Therefore, it can be concluded that fish scale char could be a valuable materials towards purification of industrial effluent.