High speed milling with ceramic indexable inserts is a current practice for manufacturing of gas turbine components in superalloys since it allows for high material removal rates. Ceramic milling is used for rough milling, which is followed by cemented carbide semi- and finish milling. The tool motion play an important role on the resulting surface integrity. The machining strategy of up or down milling will induce different degree of residual stresses and deformations. Increased knowledge of selecting the machining strategy with lowest impact will promote improved productivity by using ceramic milling to a greater extent based on the affected depth. The main objective in this work has been to correlate the residual stresses and deformations to promote a greater utilization of ceramic milling while still producing surfaces with acceptable properties. Prior investigations have shown that ceramic milling induce very high tensile stresses in the surface, exceeding the material’s nominal yield strength. A second objective has been to explain these stress levels by thorough investigations of the deformation after milling. In this study, milling tests with new and worn ceramic and cemented carbide inserts have been performed in Alloy 718. The topography, residual stresses, deformation and hardness have been investigated for up, centre and down milling. Residual stress measurements were performed using X-ray diffraction, followed by evaluation of hardness and deformation, using hardness testing, light optical microscopy as well as electron back scattering diffraction (EBSD). These results have been used to determine an appropriate milling strategy based on lowest possible impact in respect to residual stresses and deformation. The results show a high degree of deformation after milling that differs for the up, centre and down milling. Based on these results, it is shown that up milling is preferable for new inserts but as the inserts wear out, down milling becomes more suitable since a lower degree of deformation and residual stress impact was observed. EBSD and hardness testing showed that the milling, especially ceramic milling, caused severe deformation of the surfaces resulting in grain refinement to a nano-crystalline level. This is most likely the explanation for the prevalence of the high tensile stresses without distorting or causing failure. © 2020 The Authors