Due to growing environmental concerns and economical and social problems in manufacturing sectors, there is a huge demand for the substitution of existing cutting fluids. Further, the cutting fluids selected are expected to reduce the cutting force, improve the surface roughness and also minimize the tool wear during machining operations. Hence, this paper discusses the tribological and morphological behaviour of AISI 316L stainless steel while turning under minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) such as oil–water emulsion, mineral oil, simarouba oil, pongam oil and neem oil based on Taguchi L₂₅ orthogonal array. From the extensive experimentation, it was observed that neem oil MQL with cutting speed of (140, 140, 60 m/min), feed of (0.30, 0.20, 0.10 mm/rev) and depth of cut of (1.0, 1.0, 1.0 mm) resulted in the lowest surface roughness (0.36 µm),cutting force (235.34 N) and tool wear (100.32 microns), respectively. Further, main effects plots and analysis of variance (ANOVA)can be successfully used to identify the optimum process input parameters and their percentage of contribution (P%) on the output parameters during turning of AISI 316L steel under MQL applications. The results clearly indicate that from both an ecological and economical standpoint, neem oil is the most effective lubricant in reducing cutting forces, tool wear and surface roughness during turning of AISI 316L stainless steel under MQL.