Plasmonic nanolasers have made rapid progress in recent years, with room temperature lasing being achieved in the ultra-violet to visible wavelength range using ZnO, GaN and CdS semiconductors. However, the binding energy of excitons for semiconductors such as GaAs that emit in the technologically important near infrared region is insufficient to be stable at room temperature. Quantum dots act as traps for carriers and allow for efficient radiative recombination even at higher temperatures, and is a promising solution to this problem. Here, we demonstrate a plasmonic nanowire laser using quantum dots as the gain medium. We observed lasing up to 125 K, with a low threshold pump pulse fluence of 120 µJ/cm 2 at 7 K. A decreased temperature dependence of the lasing threshold with a high characteristic temperature of ∼309 K was achieved. This is promising for the future realization of room temperature plasmonic lasing in the near-infrared region.