The invention discloses a cobalt-based transition metal oxygen reduction catalyst, a preparation method and application thereof. The method including the steps of: adding a cobalt salt and a nitrogen-containing organic ligand into ethanol respectively and letting the two substances fully react to form a cobalt complex solution; adding a carbon material into the solution, and carrying out reflux reaction in oil bath to make the cobalt complex uniformly adsorbed on the carbon material surface; removing ethanol by evaporation, and grinding the remaining material uniformly to obtain black powder; and conducting heat treatment on the black powder in an inert gas atmosphere for 0.5-3h at 600-900DEG C, thus obtaining the cobalt-based transition metal oxygen reduction catalyst. The catalyst abandons the noble metal platinum, effectively reduces the making cost of fuel cells, and has very high oxygen catalytic activity, high catalytic stability and good methanol poisoning resistance, is easy to realize mass production, and can be widely used in fuel cells.