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The structure and magnetocaloric properties of La1–xCexFe11.44Si1.56 and their hydrides La1–xCexFe11.44Si1.56Hy (x=0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) were investigated. The samples crystallized mainly in the cubic NaZn13-type structure with a small amount ofα-Fe phase as impurity. The lattice constants and Curie temperature presented the same change tendency with increasing of Ce content. For the hydrides, the influence of Ce content on lattice constants was weakened and the values of H concentration y were approximate to be 1.56. The La1–xCexFe11.44Si1.56 compounds exhibited large values of isothermal entropy change –ΔSm around the Curie tem-perature TC under a low magnetic field change of 1.5 T. The value of–ΔSm increased and then decreased with increasing Ce con-tent, reached the maximum, 26.07 J/kg·K for x=0.3. TC increased up to the vicinity of room temperature by hydrogen absorption for the Ce substituted compounds, but TC only slightly decreased with increasing Ce content. The first-order metamagnetic transi-tion was still kept in the hydrides and the maximum values of–ΔSm were lower than those of the La1–xCexFe11.44Si1.56 compounds, but still remained large values, about 10.5 J/kgK under a magnetic field change of 1.5 T. The values of–ΔSm were nearly inde-pendent of the Ce content and did not increase with increasing x for the hydrides. The La1–xCexFe11.44Si1.56Hy (x=0–0.4) hydrides exhibited large magnetic entropy changes, small hysteresis loss and effective refrigerant capacity covered the room temperature range from 305 to 317 K. These hydrides are very useful for the magnetic refrigeration applications near room temperature under low magnetic field change.