SummaryThe solution of resource allocation is based on NOMA and OMA structures that are suboptimal to satisfy the demanding QoS and higher data rate requirements compared to EE requirements in 5G cellular networks. In this work, the resource allocation problem in the hybrid MC‐NOMA system is solved. The system achieves the trade‐off between spectral and energy efficiency (EE) with the lowest rate of user requirements. The system's resource allocation, including power allocation, is considered the crucial factor and is identified as a single‐objective problem. The suggested work focuses on user pairing and allocation on paired users following processing. The user grouping is designed to connect near‐ and far‐users with high C3 to increase the fairness of NOMA. As a result, this work considers multiple goals, such as C3 maximization, spectrum efficiency, and energy efficiency. This paper aims to present a novel hybrid optimization model with the combination of coati and bald eagle optimization algorithms, to solve the defined optimization problem. The experimental results show that the suggested system outperforms the conventional algorithms by evaluating different performance measures such as channel correlation, spectrum efficiency, energy efficiency, and power allocation.