Semi-organic single crystal of ammonium bis (citrato) borate dihydrate (ABCBDH) was harvested by slow evaporation technique (SET). The nature of the solubility of the ABCBDH crystal has been investigated by the gravimetrical method with different temperatures. The structure of the crystal system (orthorhombic), lattice parameters and space group (Pbca) were confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The crystalline nature of the ABCBDH crystal has been determined by powder X-ray diffraction and its planes were identified by morphology studies. FT-IR and FT-Raman were used to analyze the presence of the functional group in the grown sample. UV–Vis spectrum was used to determine the transmittance percentage and lower cut-off of the ABCBDH crystal. Laser damage threshold and photoconductivity studies were also carried out. The growth pattern and etch pit density of the crystal was analyzed by etching studies. The third-order nonlinear optical property of ABCBDH crystal was analyzed by Z-scan method and the corresponding nonlinear refractive index, absorption coefficient, optical susceptibility and optical limiting parameters were calculated. The third-order nonlinear susceptibility (χ3) of ABCBDH single crystal was found to be 9.1973 × 10−12 esu. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.