In this research, an attempt has been made in the present study to identify optimum operating and geometric design parameters for printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) that can transfer heat in the range of 2–100 MW to carbon dioxide fluid-based Brayton cycle for concentrating solar power plants. For this purpose, six different nature inspired optimization techniques have been used to solve heat transfer phenomenon between hot molten salt and cold carbon dioxide fluid in the PCHE. The optimization techniques applied are artificial bee colony, gray wolf, cuckoo, Jaya, particle swarm and teaching learning-based optimization algorithms. From the results obtained, it is observed that cuckoo optimization algorithm provides optimum design parameters among other optimization techniques considered.