A compact hexagonal nested loop fractal antenna with L shaped slot on the ground plane is presented for multiband applications. In this paper, the effect of fractal iterations and position of L-slot on ground plane are optimized for better performance of the antenna. Multiple hexagon loops excite multiple resonant modes at 1.7, 2.4, 3.1, 4.5 and 6GHz and an L-shaped slot on the ground plane helps to achieve wide bandwidth response with better impedance matching in the 4.25-6.41GHz frequency band. An equivalent circuit of the proposed antenna is modelled and the same is verified using ADS. Reflection coefficient and radiation pattern are presented to further confirm the performance of the proposed design for wireless applications. The proposed antenna is fabricated on a low-cost FR4 substrate of dimensions 40×32×1.6 mm 3 and measured results show good agreement with simulation results. © 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston 2019.