The ARGO-YBJ experiment consists of a 5000 m 2 single layer of Resistive Plate Chambers situated at Yangbajing, Tibet (P.R. of China), 4300 meters a.s.l. (atmospheric depth 600 g/cm 2 ). The percentage of active area all over the carpet is 92% and a partially instrumented guard ring (1700 m 2 ) around the central zone extends the instrumented area up to 11000 m 2 . The experiment is operated in scaler mode, shower mode and analog mode and is sensitive to cosmic rays in the 10 9 -10 15 eV energy range. From few hundreds GeV on, the arrival direction of cosmic rays is inferred by the study of the induced extensive air showers. A review of the most important results of the ARGO-YBJ experiment in gamma-ray astronomy and cosmic-ray physics will be given, focusing on the potential of RPCs in ground-based astroparticle physics.