Compared with conventional stainless steel, a new type of stainless steel, S35657, has broad application prospects owing to its advantages of high strength and low production costs. In this study, the compressive capacity of stainless steel S35657 columns was investigated. A total of 13 specimens were designed and tested, including 4 box section specimens and 9 I-section specimens (4 buckling around the major axis and 5 buckling around the minor axis). Complementary chemical composition analyses, material tensile tests, residual stress measurements, and initial geometric imperfection measurements were also conducted. The mechanical properties of the material, as well as its residual stress distribution model, failure mode, load-displacement curve, and compressive capacity, were reported and analyzed. For box section columns, when the slenderness ratio increased from 29 to 55.2, the compressive capacity of the column decreased by 27.6 %. The accuracy and safety of design methods specified in European standard EN 1993–1–4, American specification ASCE-8–02, and Chinese specification CECS 410 were assessed based on the test results. The result shows that EN 1993–1–4 is overly conservative in its compressive capacity calculations, whereas ASCE-8–02 overestimates the compressive capacity with a higher level of scatter exhibited. The methods of CECS 410 for predicting the compressive capacity of welded stainless steel S35657 columns are more accurate compared with the methods of EN 1993–1–4 and ASCE-8–02.