Although carbon materials have great potential for potassium ion battery (KIB) anodes due to their structural stability and abundant carbon-containing resources, the limited K+-intercalated capacity impedes their extensive applications in energy storage devices. Current research studies focus on improving the surface-induced capacitive behavior to boost the potassium storage capacity of carbon materials. Herein, we designed edge-nitrogen (pyridinic-N and pyrrolic-N) doped carbon spheres with a hierarchically porous structure to achieve high potassium storage properties. The electrochemical tests confirmed that the edge-nitrogen induced active sites were conducive for the adsorption of K+, and the hierarchical porous structure promoted the generation of stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) films, both of which endow the resulting materials with a high reversible capacity of 381.7 mA h g-1 at 0.1 A g-1 over 200 cycles and an excellent rate capability of 178.2 mA h g-1 at 5 A g-1. Even at 5 A g-1, the long-term cycling stability of 5000 cycles was achieved with a reversible capacity of 190.1 mA h g-1. This work contributes to deeply understand the role of the synergistic effect of edge-nitrogen induced active sites and the hierarchical porous structure in the potassium storage performances of carbon materials.