Significance: Dynamically understanding the microscopic processes governing ordering transformations has rarely been attained. The situation becomes even more challenging for nanoscale alloys, where the significantly increased surface-area-to-volume ratio not only opens up a variety of additional freedoms to initiate an ordering transformation but also allows for kinetic interplay between the surface and bulk due to their close proximity. We provide direct evidence of the microscopic processes controlling the ordering transformation through the surface–bulk interplay in Pt–Fe nanoalloys and new features rendered by variations in alloy composition and chemical stimuli. These results provide a mechanistic detail of ordering transformation phenomena which are widely relevant to nanoalloys as chemical ordering occurs in most multicomponent materials under suitable environmental bias.