Antiferromagnetic materials offer potential for spintronic applications due to their resilience to magnetic field perturbations and lack of stray fields. Achieving exchange bias in these materials is crucial for certain applications; however, discovering such materials remains challenging due to their compensated spin structure. The quest for antiferromagnetic materials with exchange bias became a reality through our experimental study and theoretical simulation on $$\hbox {Sr}_2 \hbox {FeIrO}_6$$
Sr
2
FeIrO
6
and $$\hbox {Sr}_2 \hbox {CoIrO}_6$$
Sr
2
CoIrO
6
. This study also unveils the impact of ionic disorder and lattice distortion on magnetic properties. The presence of exchange bias in both materials, given their antiferromagnetic nature, is intriguing. This study opens up new avenues for achieving exchange bias in spin-compensated systems, offering potential for low power and ultra fast antiferromagnetic spintronic applications in future research endeavors.