Free-standing conical TiO₂ nanotube arrays with various lengths were prepared directly on the Ti foil by adjusting the applied voltage during the two-step anodic oxidation process. Then the as-grown TiO₂ nanotube arrays were transferred onto the flexible ITO/PEN substrates by using titania slurries without any organic binder, which were used as the photoanodes to fabricate the front-illuminated flexible DSSCs. SEM image showed that the conical TiO₂ nanotube arrays were successfully obtained. UV–vis spectra were used to explore the enhanced optical absorption compared with the regular cylinder TiO₂nanotube arrays. The photovoltaic properties for incident photon to current efficiency (IPCE) and photovoltaic conversion efficiency was also studied under AM 1.5 illumination, which showed that the conical TiO₂ nanotube arrays with 14 μm have the higher photovoltaic performance (3.78%) than that of the regular cylinder TiO₂ nanotube arrays (2.79%). The reason of the enhanced photovoltaic performance is due to the enhanced light-harvesting ability of the conical TiO₂ nanotube arrays.