This Review on the crystal chemistry of oxocobaltates of alkali metals is presented according to the chemical composition. Classification of alkali oxocobaltates mainly depends on an increasing oxygen content of the compounds. Identical chemical compositions are sorted with increasing atomic numbers of the alkali metals. Cobalt is observed in the valence states Co+, Co2+, Co3+ and Co4+. No other metal shows such a close dependence of coordination and valence state. The oxygen coordination of Co+ in A3CoO2 (A = Na, K, Rb) and K2CsCoO2 is dumbbell‐shaped, the bond angles O–Co–Co being close to 180°. Coordination number two for the alkali metals (A) in these compounds is not less interesting, with the bond angles showing large deviations from a stretched O–A–O configuration. Cobalt in the valence state Co2+ (K2CoO2; Rb2Co2O3; Na4CoO3; Rb2K4Co2O5; K2Na4Co2O5; RbNa7Co2O6; Na10Co4O9) prefers a trigonal planar coordination. There is only one compound (Na7Co2O6) showing mixed valences Co2+/Co3+ together with a triangular coordination. Tetrahedral coordination is typical for cobalt in the valence state Co3+ (K/RbCoO2; Na6Co2O6; Na5CoO4; Na2Li3CoO4). Few compounds (K/Cs/Rb2CoO3; Na4CoO4; Li8CoO6; K6Co2O7) show Co4+ beside Co3+ in tetrahedral coordination. A small amount of oxocobaltates show octahedral coordination with cobalt in the valence states Co3+ (LiCoO2; NaCoO2) and higher (NaCo2O4; K4Co7O14). Finally, one mixed alkali rare earth oxocobaltate, Nd18Li8Co4O39, is presented. Several oxocobaltates reported in the ICSD database show cobalt on different point positions. In these cases it is of interest to calculate Madelung Parts of Lattice Energie (MAPLE) established by Rudolf Hoppe. MAPLE allows calculation of the differences between the Coulomb‐terms of the lattice energy, which exclusively depends on the valences of cobalt on different point positions. In all comparable cases identical positional configurations of the atoms prevent influences of the repulsion term of the lattice energy. The energy balance therefore exclusively depends on the valence states of cobalt and its distribution on the point positions, with Rb2Co2O3, Na4CoO3, Na8Co2O7, Na10Co4O9, and Na10Co4O10 being examples.