One-dimensional (1D) spin chain systems have received special attention to discover novel magnetic ground states and emergent phenomena, while magnetic studies on rare-earth (RE)-based 1D spin chain materials are still rare. Here, we report the synthesis, structure, and magnetic behaviors of a family of tetragonal tungsten-bronze (TTB) structure K 2 RENb 5 O 15 (RE = Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd−Ho) compounds, which consist of a 1D linear spin-chain structure built by RE 3+ ions along the c-axis and well spatially separated by nonmagnetic K/Nb−O polyhedrons with large interchain distances of ∼8.80−8.88 Å in the ab-plane. In this family of K 2 RENb 5 O 15 compounds, the nearest-neighboring interchain exchange interactions through the RE−O−K/Nb−O− RE routes are much smaller than the intrachain ones via the RE−O−RE pathways, and the low-temperature magnetic results reveal the absence of long-range magnetic order down to 1.8 K for all compounds. Among them, K 2 GdNb 5 O 15 , with spin-only magnetic moment S = 7/2, exhibits a long-range magnetic order with T N ∼ 0.31 K and strong spin fluctuations at low temperatures due to its low-dimension characteristics. Moreover, a large magnetocaloric effect under low field change (ΔB) of ΔB = 0−2 T is realized at temperatures below 1 K for K 2 GdNb 5 O 15 , making it an ideal candidate for adiabatic magnetic refrigeration applications at sub-Kelvin temperatures. The K 2 RENb 5 O 15 become a rare family of insulating RE-based magnets for exploring the novel 1D spin chain physics beyond the 3d TM-based counterparts in terms of their combination of low dimension, strong spin−orbital coupling, and rich diversity of RE ions.