context: In summary, a compressible and elastic N-doped porous carbon nanofiber aerogel was prepared with rGO-wrapped crossed PCNFs and coiled PCNFs as mechanically reinforced structures to support the frameworks. Meanwhile, a hierarchical and porous architecture with open-cell structures existed in N-PCNFAs, which provided plenty of short paths for electrolyte diffusion and enough area for electrochemical double-layer capacitance when N-PCNFAs served as self-supporting and binder-free electrodes. Moreover, N atoms were also introduced into PCNFs as active sites for faradaic redox reactions. Thus, as supercapacitor electrodes, the N-PCNFAs exhibited a high specific capacitance of 279 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1, with a rate performance of 59% at 20 A g−1. They even reached a capacitance retention of 122% after 10000 cycles because of the N-induced electro-activation, steadily improved wettability of the electrodes during fast charging and discharging, and stable frameworks of N-PCNFAs. Finally, this work presents a wise and simple strategy to prepare CNF-based aerogels with hierarchical structures and heteroatom doping, which also exhibit excellent compressibility and elasticity. These characteristics make them good candidates for energy storage, sensors, adsorption and catalytic materials.