• NR-VOSO 4 pair provides a discharge voltage of 0.8–1.0 V. • 60% of the battery capacity is charged and discharged in 15 min. • The cell voltage is predicted to increase up to 1.2 V by lowering over-potential. Neutral red (NR), a bi-electron and electrochemically durable material that undergoes a rapid redox reaction, is a redox indicator that responds rapidly to cell potential changes during titration. Although it possesses attractive properties, it is only soluble in sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ) solutions, necessitating the development of appropriate cathode materials to pair with NR in H 2 SO 4 solutions. Metal sulfates, which are used in battery applications, are promising candidates for this purpose. The NR-MnSO 4 pair showed remarkable properties such as a good rate capability and relatively high discharge voltage of 1.2–1.1 V; however, it enabled the formation of manganese oxides. Among the metal sulfates evaluated, VOSO 4 is the most plausible cathode material for pairing with NR, where the NR-VOSO 4 pair provides a discharge voltage of 0.8–1.0 V. Increasing the H 2 SO 4 concentration from 1.0 M to 3.0 M expedites the reaction rate of the NR-VOSO 4 pair, which improves the cycle life and reduces the overpotential at electrodes. As NR has a kinetic rate constant that is three orders of magnitude higher than that of V 2+ /V 3+ for all vanadium batteries in sulfuric acid, it qualifies as a candidate to replace V 2+ /V 3+ in all vanadium batteries using 3.0 M H 2 SO 4 or a higher concentration of H 2 SO 4 as an electrolyte.