Water-based ‘nanofluid’ flow owing to an unsteady stretched surface is inspected in this paper considering Stefan blowing and thermal radiation. ‘Similarity transformations’ are applied to reduce the governing ‘partial differential equations’ (PDEs) for momentum, energy and concentration into ‘nonlinear’ ‘ordinary differential equations’ (ODEs). By using a shooting technique, those equations are solved numerically with the help of fourth-order ‘Runge–Kutta method’. ‘Wall shear stress’ rises but ‘heat transfer’ as well as ‘mass transfer coefficients’ reduce for the augmentation in ‘Stefan blowing/suction parameter’. ‘Temperature’ and ‘concentration’ of nanoliquid are found to rise but liquid’s ‘velocity’ reduces for the growing of ‘nanoparticle’s volume fraction’. Liquid’s ‘velocity’ and ‘concentration’ are observed to decrease for enhanced ‘Lewis number’. Based on the results presented here as well as their anatomical analysis, the relevant parameters significantly affect the stream, warmth and mass transports.