Phenyltetrazole substituted compounds, namely 5-phenyl-1H-tetrazole (PT), 5-(4chlorophenyl)-1H-tetrazole (Cl-PT), 5-(4-methoxyphenyl)-1H-tetrazole (MO-PT) and 5-p-tolyl-1H-tetrazole (M-PT) were synthesized to study their inhibition behavior on mild steel in 1 M HCl by weight loss measurement, potentiodynamic polarization studies and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). It has been observed that corrosion rate decreases and inhibition efficiency increases with increasing in phenyltetrazole substituted concentration and dependence on molecular structure. Polarization data indicate that these compounds act as very good cathodic inhibitors of mild steel in 1 M HCl. The result showed that the inhibition efficiency decreased with temperature and increased with immersion time. EIS has the same trend of inhibitive effect as that of the polarization data, which indicates the formation of a protective layer on mild steel surface by molecules adsorption.