The analysis and sustainable management of water resources have been substantially hampered by the absence of optimum precipitation data in Afghanistan. Using observational data from 68 stations over a 24-year period (1961–1984), this study produces a long-term high spatial resolution monthly gridded precipitation dataset for Afghanistan. The ordinary Kriging tool was utilized to develop the observed gridded dataset with a fine resolution of 0.08°. Comparative analysis of gauge-based and reanalysis products such as the Global Precipitation Climatology Center (GPCC), Asian Precipitation—Highly-Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation of Water Resources (APHRODITE), European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis (ERA5-Land) and University of Delaware Terrestrial Precipitation (U-Del) was performed using statistical measures and the best-performing dataset was bias corrected in conjunction with bias correction methods evaluation. Employing the Mann-Kendel test and Sen’s slope estimator on the developed dataset, annual and seasonal spatial trends analysis was done. The findings revealed that the GPCC outperformed other datasets for the whole Afghanistan and was bias-corrected using linear scaling to produce a long-term product. In eastern, central, and southern parts of Afghanistan, 40.40% of the area experienced a significant increase in annual precipitation ranging from 0.78 to 16 mm/year. A decrease from 0.31 to 11.85 mm/year was observed in Baghlan, Bamian, Sari Pul, Ghor, Zabul, Badghis, Southern Paktika, and eastern Badakhshan of the study area. Afghanistan's eastern, central, and southern regions mostly have significant increasing trends during the summer and autumn, while other parts of the study area experience negligible decreasing trends in these seasons. Decision makers and researchers may use the developed gridded dataset for hydroclimatic modeling and future projection to develop due policies for the sustainable management of water resources.