Fuel cell technology is one of the most promising, emissions free, energy conversion technology under renewable energy systems because of its wide ability in most of the commercial applications like electrical vehicles, building cogeneration and standby power supply. Mathematical models are trusted as important tools for designing and performance analysis of fuel cell based systems. Many mathematical models based on thermal, electrochemical and electrical steady states as well as dynamic have been reported in literature to evaluate performance of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell, but all these models are complex and needs huge amount of data for modeling and performance testing. The present paper proposes simple, but more realistic MATLAB SIMULINK model for PEM fuel cell to evaluate its performance under different operating conditions. The performance of the proposed model is compared with single practical, 25 cm(2) active area, PEM fuel cell for model validation. The presented model is also valid for a stack having any number of cells. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.