Mg-Co-Zn nanoferrites of composition MgxCo0.5Zn0.5Fe2−xO4 (x = 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0) were successfully synthesized by using a citrate precursor method. After synthesis, the samples were examined using different techniques for structural, morphological, electrical and dielectric characterizations. All the samples were found to have single phase spinel cubic structure with Fd-3m space group in the X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD) investigation. The value of average crystallite size ranged from 37 to 47 nm with the increase in Mg ion concentration from x = 0.25 to 1.0. The hopping lengths at tetrahedral and octahedral sites showed an increasing behaviour with increasing magnesium ion concentration. The presence of tensile strain in the samples was confirmed by W-H plots. The dielectric behaviour of the prepared nanoferrites was recorded at room temperature in the frequency range 10 kHz–10 MHz. The real part and imaginary part of the dielectric constant were found to be in the range 3.80–7.93 and 0.0036–0.644 at 1 MHz frequency and the value of loss tangent was 0.00095–0.081 at 1 MHz for the magnesium doped Co-Zn nanoferrites. The value of loss tangent decreased very sharply to remarkably low values at 10 MHz frequency. The dc resistivity value was found very low in the range 3.2 × 108 Ω-cm to 4.0 × 109 Ω-cm for different concentrations of Mg2+ ions in the samples. Due to such low losses at high frequency region and high value of dc resistivity, these materials can be considered as potential candidate for high frequency applications. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.