Entropy is the measure of the amount of energy in any physical system that is not accessible for the useful work, which causes a decrease in a system’s thermodynamic efficiency. The idea of entropy generation analysis plays a vital role in characterizing the evolution of thermal processes and minimizing the impending loss of available mechanical power in thermo-fluid systems from an analytical perspective. It has a wide range of applications in biological, information, and engineering systems, such as transportation, telecommunication, and rate processes. The analysis of the entropy generation of axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic hybrid nanofluid [Formula: see text]/water flow induced by rotating and stretching cylinder in the presence of heat radiation, ohmic heating, and the magnetic field is focus of this study. Thermal energy transport of hybrid nanofluids is performed by applying the Maxwell model. Heat transport is carried out by using convective boundary condition. The dimensionless ordinary differential equations are acquired by similarity transformations. The numerical solution for these differential equations is obtained by the bvp4c program in MATLAB. A comparison between nanofluid and hybrid nanofluid is made for flow field, temperature, and entropy generation. Comparison of nanofluid flow with hybrid nanofluid flow exhibits a higher rate of heat transmission, while entropy generation exhibits the opposite behavior. It is observed that the flow and heat distribution increase as the solid volume fraction’s value grows. An increase in entropy is indicated by augmentation in the Brinkman number and temperature ratio parameter, but the Bejan number shows a declining trend. Furthermore, outcomes of the Nusselt number for hybrid nanofluid and nanofluid are calculated for various parameters. It is noticed that the Nusselt number is reduced for enlarging the magnetic field and Eckert number. The axial and azimuthal wall stress parameters are declined by augmenting the Reynolds number.