This study aims to develop a robust and efficient approach for predicting the Rate of Penetration (ROP) by integrating the Artificial Fish Swarm Algorithm (AFSA) with the Back Propagation (BP) algorithm in an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The integration of AFSA with Back Propagation is the primary novelty of this work, as it seeks to achieve optimal weight and bias values for the ANN, thereby enhancing prediction accuracy. A dataset of 1944 data points from a vertical well in southern Algeria was utilized. The performance of the developed models was evaluated using correlation coefficient and root mean square error (RMSE). The results demonstrated that the AFSA-ANN model significantly outperforms conventional ANN, Support Vector Regression (SVR), Random Forest regressor (RFR), and Bourgoyne and Young’s model in terms of accuracy. Additionally, the application of leverage method revealed that only 0.98% of the data falls outside the model’s applicability domain, indicating that the data and the model are statistically valid and reliable. The findings of this study have significant implications for the oil and gas field, providing a more accurate and reliable method for predicting ROP, which can lead to more efficient drilling operations and reduced costs.