The mechanical alloying (MA) technique was used to prepare stainless steel powders containing nitrogen by high energy ball milling under N
2 atmosphere and NH
3·H
2O medium. The effect of MA technique on the property of the powders was investigated. The results showed that the nitrogen content in the powder increased and the powder size decreased with increasing milling time. The nitrogen content in the powder was close to that in high nitrogen stainless steel. The powder size was close to 1.878 μm when milling was carried out for 10 h.