Abstract Few energy/cost estimates exist in the literature for adsorption-based CO 2 capture. We study a pressure/vacuum swing adsorption (PVSA) process using zeolite 13X for post-combustion capture of CO 2 from dry flue gas, and report useful insights into the effects of column dimensions and feed CO 2 concentration. We propose a configuration for a full-scale CO 2 capture and concentration plant for a 500 MW power plant, and then develop a mathematical programming formulation to minimize its total annualized cost (TAC). Our estimated TAC for capture from a 500 MW power plant flue gas with 15% CO 2 is US$33.4–40.3 per tonne of CO 2 avoided (US$30.4–36.7 per tonne of CO 2 captured). The key result is that the energy penalty for CO 2 capture amounts to less than 25% of TAC. Thus, using TAC as the design objective for a capture facility may be more appropriate than the popular choice of energy.