Due to the environmental concerns, refrigerants with low global warming potential (GWP) are good alternatives to use in the most refrigeration system. In this paper, an energy-exergoeconomic-environmental model is presented for a cascade refrigeration system (CRS) at high and low temperature cycles operating with six pairs of refrigerants with low GWP including R41-R161, R41-R1234yf, R41-R1234ze, R744-R161, R744-R1234yf, R744-R1234ze. The optimal performance of the system is studied under the effects of temperature variations in condenser, evaporator and cascade heat exchanger. To do this, the coefficient of performance (COP), exergy efficiency and total cost rate are optimized for each pair of refrigerants to evaluate the optimal operational conditions of CRS using Pareto front curve. Results show that the maximum COP of 2.09 and maximum exergy efficiency of 35.32% are obtained at condenser temperature of 40 °C and evaporator temperature of − 30 °C. In addition, the minimum total rate cost is equal to 13587 $/year when the condenser temperature is 40 °C and evaporator temperature is 32.5 °C. Finally, it is concluded that R41-R161 and R41-R1234ze are optimal refrigerant pairs with the highest COP/exergy efficiency and lowest total cost rate.