The adsorption and photo-Fenton processes have been studied for the removal of paracetamol from aqueous systems. NaX nanozeolite was used during adsorption process and cobalt ferrite nanoparticles synthesized by microwave heating method was applied in photo-Fenton technique. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) analysis. Based on results of photo-Fenton and adsorption processes for paracetamol removal; more than 99. % removal percentage was obtained for paracetamol removing during the photo-Fenton process by using cobalt ferrite nanocatalyst; whereas, lower than 50% of sorption efficiency was achieved for paracetamol removing in adsorption process. Finally, the kinetic data of photo-Fenton and adsorption processes were well described using Langmuir–Hinshelwood and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. This study provides a promising photo-Fenton process with high efficiency for removing of pharmaceutical compounds.