In this paper, a wideband, high gain planar trapezoidal monopole antenna based on single‐layer frequency selective surface (FSS) is presented. The antenna adopts an unconventional, dual‐metallic on a single‐layer FSS structure as a reflector layer to improve its performance. To validate the structure, the prototypes are fabricated and measured. The experimental results exhibit that the operating band of the proposed antenna covers 3.52–5.92 GHz, which corresponding to the impedance bandwidth of 50% with respect to the 5 GHz is the center frequency. Moreover, the proposed antenna offers a high gain with the maximum gain of 11.8 dBi at 5.1 GHz, and the gain is sustained higher 10.5 dBi for the entire bandwidth. The proposed antenna structure is a potential candidate for wideband applications and wireless local area network applications.