The research aimed to develop a high-efficiency plate-type heat exchanger for exhaust gas using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) thermal analysis based on the plate shape, and to identify the optimal shape. Following this, a water/air plate heat exchanger was manufactured, and its characteristics were studied experimentally. As the Re number increases on the gas (or air) side, the heat transfer rate increases significantly, whereas an increase in the Re number on the water side leads to a smaller increase in heat transfer. This is attributed to the larger convective heat resistance on the gas side, causing a substantial reduction in gas-side heat resistance as gas velocity increases, resulting in a considerable overall reduction in heat resistance. The fluid flow pressure drop showed similar results between the CFD calculations and experimental outcomes.