Climate hazard group infrared precipitation with station data (CHIRPS) is one of the latest high-resolution quasi-global satellite-based rainfall datasets. It is available in daily, pentadal and monthly time scale from the year 1981 to present. In the present study, the performance of the CHIRPS product is evaluated over the Kerala state on a monthly time scale. For the evaluation of this climate hazard group, product rain gauge data from sixty-seven-gauge stations which are distributed all over Kerala was used. Validation statistics such as mean absolute error (MAE), multiplicative bias (Mbias), Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) and coefficient of determination (R2) were used for the evaluation. The results show that the efficiency of this satellite rainfall estimate is very high with an overall NSE value of 0.72. The accuracy of CHIRPS data was very high mainly in the low-lying areas of Kerala, i.e. at the coastal areas and it was found to be decreasing when in approaches towards the Western Ghats. Overall CHIRPS product is good enough for use in water resource applications in Kerala. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd 2021.