SummaryEffective, reliable, and rapid spectrum sensing in concordance with maximum throughput efficiency is necessary at the cognitive radio network to maximize the network's utilization. An adaptive coalition using Kullback–Leibler divergence (KLD)‐based cooperative spectrum sensing scheme (KLDCSS) with a nominal sensing time to optimize the spectral efficiency is presented in this paper. In a coalition‐based spectrum sensing scheme, cooperating secondary users (SUs) are allocated to different coalitions to sense different Primary User (PU) channels. The same cognitive users allocated to sense the primary user channels are allotted to detect in different sensing phases. In the proposed sensing scheme, the cooperating SUs are adaptively allocated to different coalitions to maximize the throughput efficiency. Collaborating cognitive users with a standard signal‐to‐noise ratio and distinct energy levels that are characterized by the localized probabilities of detection and false alarm is considered. An adaptive coalition and user allocation algorithm are proposed to optimize the average opportunistic throughput and diminish the sensing overhead. The expression for throughput efficiency in terms of average throughput and sensing accuracy is derived. In this scheme, the SU computes the log‐likelihood ratio (LLR) from the acquired sample and forwards the same to the fusion center. The fusion center then accumulates the LLR values computed by the SU to estimate the likelihood of spectrum availability. Simulation results highlighting the competitive edge of the proposed scheme, with higher throughput efficiency over various numbers of SUs, coalitions, and signal‐to‐noise ratios, are presented.