Abstract: Microstructure and texture evolution due to recrystallization in cold rolled interstitial free (IF) steel during batch annealing (BA) and continuous annealing (CA) was investigated by mechanical properties testing, optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction and electron back-scattered diffraction. The mechanism responsible for the evolution was discussed experimentally from different aspects. It is shown that batch annealing and continuous annealing have different thermal histories, so the transition temperature of recrystallization and the reerystallized grain size are different. But the nucleation sites and evolution modes of new recrystallization nuclei are consistent, which belong to the same nucleation mechanism. The formation of recrystallization textures is well explained by the oriented nucleation mechanism rather than the selective growth mechanism.