Room temperature rapid detection of toxic gases is still ambitious for real-time application. Recently, molybdenum disulfide transition dichalcogenides (MoS2 TMDCs) have been considered as a promising material for gas sensing application, owing to their high surface-to-volume ratio. However low response and incomplete recovery hinder their performance. In this work, we demonstrate MoS2 and cobalt incorporated MoS2 to enhance the sensing response and rapid recovery. Co-incorporated (7 at%) MoS2 showed 546.6% enhancement in response compared to pristine MoS2 for 100 ppm of NO2 gas at room temperature. The enhanced edge site presents in the Co-incorporated samples was the reason for excellent gas adsorption and increased response towards NO2 gas molecules. The stability analysis showed 70% of stability of a fabricated device. These results address a new pathway for an ideal gas sensor for room temperature application. •The pristine MoS2 and co-incorporated MoS2 was successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method.•Studying the effect of cobalt incorporation in MoS2 and their gas sensing properties via home-made gas sensing unit.•The 7 at% of Co-incorporated MoS2 sample showed enhanced response of 51.08% in 10 s for 100 ppm of NO2 gas.•The uniqueness of our work is to fabricate room temperature gas sensor with enhanced sensitivity of 546.6%.