Nickel-zinc ferrite (Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4) powders were prepared by the conventional solid-state route and sintered at 1100 and 1300 °C for utilization as a tile electromagnetic wave absorber. Structural, magnetic, and microwave absorption properties were investigated by characterization techniques of X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, Raman spectroscopy, electron microscopy, vibrating sample magnetometry, and vector network analyzer. The samples sintered at 1300 °C showed high magnetic saturation of 87 emu/g and low coercivity of 4 Oe. Electromagnetic investigations exhibit high reflection losses up to - 48.1 dB at certain high and low gigahertz frequencies, as clearly depicted in the 3D contour plot. The optimized condition between reflection loss, thickness, and bandwidth revealed a reflection loss of about - 36.1 dB at the matching thickness of 3.7 mm for the X-band. Furthermore, the effective working bandwidth at - 10 dB was up to ~ 7.1 GHz for the minimum thickness of 4.3 mm, which thoroughly covered the C-band. The microwave absorption performance of the well-sintered Ni-Zn ferrite was attributed to the incorporation of dielectric and magnetic loss mechanisms in which the magnetic part prevails.