A tradeoff between light absorption and charge transport is a well-known issue in PbS colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cells because the carrier diffusion length in PbS CQD films is comparable to the thickness of CQD film. We reduce the tradeoff between light absorption and charge transport by combining a Fabry–Perot (FP) resonator and a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR). A FP resonance is formed between the DBR and a dielectric-metal-dielectric film as a top transparent electrode. A SiO2-TiO2multilayer is used to form a DBR. The FP resonance enhances light absorption near the resonant wavelength of the DBR without changing the CQD film thickness. The light absorption near the FP resonance wavelength is further boosted by coupling the FP resonance with the high reflectivity of the Ag-coated DBR. When the FP resonance and DBR are combined, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PbS CQD solar cells increases by 54%. Moreover, the DBR assisted FP resonance enables a very thin PbS layer to absorb near infrared light four times more. The overall PCE of the thin PbS CQD solar cell increases by 24% without sacrificing the average visible transmittance (AVT). Our results show how to overcome the inherence problem of the CQD and develop a semi-transparent solar cell where the wavelength-selective absorption and the transparency for visible light are important.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40580-023-00379-1.