In the present study, we have investigated the influence of Ag7+ ion irradiation fluence and N incorporation on structural, optical, electrical and gas sensing properties of ZnO thin films. The X-ray diffraction analysis reveals the retainment of ZnO wurtzite structure even at higher fluence irradiation with slight decrease in crystallinity. Photoluminescence and Hall effect measurement analysis showed an increase in density of defects for high ion fluence irradiation. Atomic force microscope analysis shows that the films irradiated at high ion fluence have vertical standing needle-like morphology and also have high value of roughness compared with the films irradiated at low ion fluence. The ammonia and methanol gas sensing properties of the films have been studied at different operating temperature and gas concentration. It conveys that the films have selectivity towards ammonia than methanol and also that the films irradiated at high ion fluence exhibit better sensitivity, low response and recovery times compared with the films irradiated at low ion fluence. The film grown in oxygen ambience and irradiated at high ion fluence showed good sensing characteristics at all temperatures even at room temperature. © 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.