Abstract In this paper, we present Picard's iterative method (PIM) for solving time–space fractional partial differential equations, where the derivatives are considered in the Caputo sense. We prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions. Additionally, we demonstrate the versatility of our proposed approach by obtaining exact solutions for a diverse set of equations. This method is user-friendly and directly applicable to any computer algebra system. The proposed method avoids intricate computations associated with the Adomian decomposition method, such as calculating Adomian polynomials, or the requirements of other methods like choosing a homotopy in the homotopy perturbation method, identification and manipulation of the invariant subspace in invariant subspace method or constructing a variational function in the variational iteration method. Thus, the proposed method is a versatile and efficient tool for exploring systems that involve both temporal and spatial fractional derivatives.