Abstract In this research, copper is doped NiO nanostructures thin films by using various doping compositions (2, 4, 6 & 8%) have been prepared by chemical spray pyrolysis technique at a temperature of (400 °C). The optical, morphological and structural properties were investigated using UV–visible spectrophotometry, X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results of (XRD) showed that all the prepared films are polycrystalline in nature with cubic structure with a strong (1 1 1) preferred orientation and the average crystallite size decreased with increase copper concentration, while the results of (AFM) indicate that the roughness of the surface decrease with increase doping. Enhancement of optical transmittance with doping decrease in the range (300–900 nm) was observed, and the absorption coefficient increased by increasing doping ratio, while the optical energy gap for allowing direct transmission decreased in the range (3.31 to 2.94 eV).