Dyes are used as a colored compound and considered as a highly toxic to biological species in water med-ium. Adsorption is most comprehensively used technology because of simple, low cost and effective for pollutant removal. Red mud activated by acid followed by heat treatments (ARM) was used as an adsor-bent. 80% dye removal within 75 min observed when adsorbent dose was 100 mg and initial dye concen-tration 10 ppm having solution pH 10. The R2 value was to be 0.991 at temperature 308 K which fits with Langmuir isotherm model. The process is exothermic in nature was confirmed by thermodynamic parameters. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.