In the present research work, gadolinium-doped nickel ferrite (NiFe_2–xGd_xO₄, x = 0–0.1) thin films have been synthesized by a facile sol–gel approach. The structural, optical, and magnetic performances of Gd-doping on nickel ferrite films have been investigated. The X-ray diffraction pattern indicated a cubic spinel ferrite structure and that the lattice parameter increased, while the crystalline size decreased with increasing the Gd concentration. Scanning electron microscopy analysis indicated that Gd-doped thin films were dense and smooth. The optical band gap value of the as-prepared thin films increased with increasing the Gd concentration. It showed that Gd-doping endowed nickel ferrite thin films with much better saturation magnetization (278.53 emu/cc) and remnant magnetization (67.83 emu/cc) at an appropriate 0.05 Gd-doping concentration. In addition, our results also revealed that the saturation magnetization remarkably increased, then sharply decreased with increasing of Gd doping content, which is attributed to effects of Gd-doping, exchange interaction, and redistribution of cations. Moreover, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis exhibited the effect of Gd-doping substitution on exchange interaction and redistribution of cations at the octahedral site and tetrahedral site.