Sodium ion batteries (SIBs) are emerging as an alternative battery technology to lithium ion batteries because they have the potential of having a similar energy density and the advantage of sodium being more environmentally friendly than lithium. Hard carbon has been shown to be one of the best candidates as anode material for SIBs. However, several challenges need to be solved before commercializing SIBs such as finding cheaper and more efficient precursors to produce hard carbon and increasing the stability of hard carbon electrodes with the electrolyte. Herein, we report a new bio-based free standing electrode made from lignin based electrospun carbon fibers (LCFs) with a high specific capacity of 310 mAh.g−1 and a first coulombic efficiency of 89%. By using high precision coulometry on the LCFs at different carbonization temperatures, it was found that the cycling stability was dependent on the carbonization temperature. The results show that LCFs are a viable and renewable source to be used as anodes in future SIBs. © The Author(s) 2019.