Water-based drilling fluid (WBDF) with low permeability and tangible gel strength is highly preferable in drilling industry to have uninterrupted drilling operations. Hence, it is crucial to sustain certain rheological properties of WBDF such as viscosity, gel strength and fluid-loss. Recent studies have identified various nano-additives with the ability to enhance the specific rheological properties of WBDF. In this paper, the enhancement of fluid loss control and gel strength of WBDF were studied using various combination of nano-additives multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and graphene oxide (GO). The synthesized MWCNT improved the gel strength independently without enhancing the fluid loss control of WBDF as the result of its hydrophobic characteristics. GO impressively enhanced the fluid loss control of WBDF with or without the presence of MWCNT but does not contribute significantly in terms of gel strength. © 2019 Author(s).