▶ Recent progress of palladium-based materials including extended surfaces and nanostructured ones for hydrogen oxidation reaction and oxygen reduction reaction was overviewed. ▶ Pd–Pt alloys show comparable to or higher hydrogen oxidation activity than pure Pt. ▶ Pd alloys show comparable oxygen reduction activity to pure Pt. ▶ Oxygen reduction activity depends strongly on the orientations of the Pd surface. ▶ Durability of Pd alloys is an issue in fuel cell operation. Fuel cells, especially low temperature fuel cells are clean energy devices that are expected to help address the energy and environmental problems that have become prevalent in our society. Platinum-based electrocatalysts are usually used as the electrocatalysts for both the anode (hydrogen oxidation) and cathode (oxygen reduction) reactions. The high cost and limited resources of this precious metal hinder the commercialization of fuel cells. Recent efforts have focused on the discovery of palladium-based electrocatalysts with little or no platinum for hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). This paper overviews the recent progress of electrocatalysis of palladium-based materials including both extended surfaces and nanostructured ones for HOR and ORR. The properties of CO and methanol tolerances of palladium-based electrocatalysts are also summarized.