The role of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of gold nanorods (Au NRs) on the performance of Y123 dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) was investigated. DSSCs were fabricated by incorporating different concentrations (0.6 to 3.0 wt%) of Au NRs into TiO2 photoanodes. With an increase in the concentration of the Au NRs, the light absorption by the Y123 dye loaded photoanodes enhanced linearly, but the charge extraction was susceptible to the concentration of the Au NRs. With optimized concentrations (∼1.8 wt%) of the Au NRs, the photocurrent of the DSSC enhanced from 12.45 to 15.74 mA cm-2, and the power conversion efficiency (PCE) improved from 5.31 to 8.86%. The DSSC performance was also verified using Au nanoparticles (the PCE was enhanced from 5.31 to 7.72%) for comparison with the Au NR DSSC performance, which demonstrated the advantage of the Au NRs' shape effect with longitudinal SPR due to the modified light interaction. To explain the experimental observations of the plasmonic DSSC, the Au NRs' extinction efficiency and spatial distribution of the near-fields in complete and porous TiO2 media were also estimated using the finite-element method.