Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the mandatory adoption of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) on firm’s stock liquidity. Design/methodology/approach Using a random-effects model, this study examines the impact of the mandatory adoption of XBRL (ADOPXBRL) on firm’s stock liquidity of 980 companies pertaining to 13 countries for a period from 2000 to 2016. Findings This paper finds that the mandatory ADOPXBRL affects negatively and significatively Amihud’s (2002) illiquidity ratio. Therefore, mandatory XBRL adoption enhances the firm’s stock liquidity. In addition, this paper finds that the impact of the mandatory ADOPXBRL on firm’s stock liquidity is more pronounced in civil law countries than in common law countries. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature on the advantage of XBRL especially for the civil law countries by examining the impact of the mandatory ADOPXBRL on firm’s stock liquidity.