Pure 2% and 4% Ag-doped ZnO thin films have been synthesized on glass substrates by sol–gel method. The structure, morphology and optical properties of the samples have been studied by X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning probe microscope, UV–vis spectrophotometer, respectively. The XRD result shows that the pure ZnO has a wurtzite hexagonal structure, no phase segregation is observed. The surface morphology of pure ZnO thin film shows that the grains are growing preferentially along the c -axis orientation perpendicular to the substrates. The transmittance spectra reveal that all samples have high transmittance above 90% in visible region. With Ag doping content increase, a red shift is observed. The performance of Ag-doped ZnO films using in thin film solar cells are simulated. The results show that 4% Ag-doped ZnO thin film can greatly improve the absorption of the cells. Compare to pure ZnO, solar cell's energy conversion efficiency improvement of 2.47% is obtained with 4% Ag doped ZnO thin film.