The heavy metal ions (HMIs) removal from aquatic systems is a critical environmental challenge because of toxicity, persistence, and bioaccumulation in ecosystems. Therefore, this study addressed the vital necessity for low-cost, efficient, and eco-friendly adsorbents in removing of HMIs pollutants from wastewater, for environment and human health risks. The adsorbents “hydrogels”, with their high-water content and crosslinked network structure, offer an efficient and promising materials for adsorbing and removing HMIs from water. This study explores novel synthesis of the chitosan xanthate-based hydrogel (CSXHs hydrogel), which utilized for the Co2+ and Cu2+ ions removal. The incorporation of the xanthate groups within CSXHs hydrogel framework significantly enhanced metal-binding affinity through sulfur-containing active sites, improved adsorption selectivity, removal efficiency, swelling behavior, surface negativity, and reusability of the hydrogel. The most important result was found to be the excellent selectivity and adsorption performance of CSXHs-3 hydrogel, achieving 295.55 g–1 for swelling and 89.25% for water retention capability in 24 hrs in water along with the 95.38% for Co2+ and 98.57% for Cu2+ ions removal efficiencies at optimum conditions. The Langmuir isotherm model was best fitting in experimental data with adsorption capacity of 508.87 and 533.86 mg g–1 for Co2+ and Cu2+, indicating the monolayer adsorption. Additionally, PSO kinetic model was followed the kinetic data with rate constant of 2.20 × 10⁻4 and 2.26 × 10⁻4 g (mg·min)–1 for Co2+ and Cu2+, indicating the chemisorption mechanism. Furthermore, the adsorption efficiency of hydrogel maintained with 86.11% for Co2+ and 89.26% for Cu2+ ions after fourth cycle, indicating excellent regeneration potential. The removal efficiencies were 85.44% for Co2+ and 87.51% for Cu2+ ions in simulated wastewater. However, in dynamic system, the removal efficiencies were 98.75% for Co2+ and 99.04% for Cu2+ ions. The estimated cost of the hydrogel was 4.22 INR g–1. The findings highlight the adsorption technology is a scalable approach for the efficient remediation of HMIs contaminated wastewater.