In this investigation, two different constitutive models were employed to examine the creep deformation and damage behaviour of nuclear grade austenitic 316LN SS with four different nitrogen contents (0.07–0.22 wt%) at 923 K. Creep deformation resistance of the alloys investigated by “internal-stress based kinetic creep law” for primary and secondary creep stages revealed an increase in internal stress and decrease in obstacle spacing accompanied with lower dynamic recovery with increasing nitrogen. The aforementioned outcomes substantiated the experimentally observed beneficial role of nitrogen on lowering of creep strain rate with increasing nitrogen level. In contrast to the above observations, the analysis of coupled creep deformation and damage using the Kachanov-Rabotnov model and the subsequent development of iso-damage contours indicated evolution of higher creep damage at lower strains with increasing nitrogen content. With increasing % nitrogen, damage rate dominated over the strain rate thus justifying the observed significant intergranular damage at and above 0.14% N. Based on the above results and in-house studies on low cycle fatigue and creep–fatigue interaction, optimum nitrogen content is suggested between 0.07 and 0.14% N in 316LN SS that combines the benefits of low nitrogen content and strengthening effects of high nitrogen content.