Reverse water−gas shift (RWGS) reaction is considered as an effective solution for conversion of greenhouse gas of the CO 2 to CO, but it still suffers from relatively low activity and selectivity at low temperatures. Herein, we report the catalytic performance and mechanism of NiIn x /SBA-15 with different Ni and In (indium) molar ratios for the RWGS reaction at a low temperature. The results showed that the increment of the In/Ni ratio in intermetallic alloy compounds (IMCs) inhibits CO* adsorption through the "active site isolation" effect, thus improving selectivity of CO. In terms of In−Ni IMCs, Ni acts as the active center but is isolated by In atoms for the CO 2 hydrogenation reaction. XRD and HRTEM showed that Ni and In formed the IMC and were highly dispersed on the large surface area of SBA-15. It was also demonstrated by H 2 -TPR that the addition of In enhanced the interaction between Ni and the support, thus improving the stability of the catalyst with good anti-sintering. Meanwhile, the aggregation charge density of Ni was obtained by In additives, as verified by XPS and DFT simulation. After optimizing the In/Ni molar ratio, the NiIn 0.5 /SBA-15 exhibited a CO 2 conversion of 29% at 400 °C, 0.1 MPa, and 24,000 mL/g cat •h, with a CO selectivity of over 99% and a production rate of about 47 mmol/g cat •h, which is superior to those of the most reported nickel-based catalysts. At the same time, NiIn 0.5 /SBA-15 showed good long-time stability and the conversion of CO 2 was maintained well after a 25 h reaction. In situ DRIFTS reveals a change for surface intermediates from HCOO* to COOH* during CO 2 activation after the introduction of In, leading to a rapid desorption of CO and avoiding further hydrogenation to form CH 4 , which can also be demonstrated by CO-TPD. The highly dispersed Ni−In IMCs with weak adsorption capacity of CO are the main reason for achieving high activity and selectivity for RWGS at low temperatures.