Plasmonic metal nanoparticles containing photoanodes are known to exhibit stable photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance due to their optical and electronic properties. In this work, we report the application of plasmonic Bi nanoparticles supported over a g-C3N4/Bi2S3 photoanode for PEC water splitting. Typical results indicated that g-C3N4/Bi2S3/BiNPs ternary composite photoanode showed a high photo-current density of 7.11 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V under solar irradiation, which was ∼ 5 and 10 times higher than g-C3N4/Bi2S3 and g-C3N4 photoanodes, respectively. Further, the composite electrode also demonstrated superior solar to hydrogen efficiency and long-term stability. It was concluded that Bi nanoparticles play a major role in enhancing the PEC performance for hydrogen evolution reaction. Thus, g-C3N4/Bi2S3/BiNPs has superior PEC performance and proved to work as an alternative to noble metal based photo-electrodes for solar-water splitting reactions. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.