Corrosion behavior of modified SUS316 has been studied under different oxygen potentials with tellurium vapor. Under the condition of oxygen potential ⩽−500 kJ/mol and tellurium vapor pressure of 8.9 × 10 −4 atm, duplex corrosion layers formed on the surface of specimens, which mainly consisted of chromium telluride, iron telluride and chromium oxide. The thickness of corrosion layer was increased with decreasing the oxygen potential. Furthermore, the amount of oxygen uptake in sample corroded with tellurium vapor was much greater than that in sample oxidized without tellurium vapor.