Abstract Magnetic properties and DSC peak near Curie temperature, TC, of amorphous and nanocrystalline microwires with different ratios ρ = d/D were studied. The investigated compositions were close to Finemet-type: Fe70.8Cu1Nb3.1Si14.5B10.6, Fe71.8Cu1Nb3.1Si15B9.1 and Fe73.8Cu1Nb3.1Si13B9.1. The effects of magnetoelastic energy, stored during the Finemet-type microwires fabrication, on hysteresis loops, TC and heat capacity of Finemet-type microwires were investigated. Hysteresis loops of all as-prepared microwires showed rectangular shape, typical for Fe-rich microwires. As expected, coercivity, Hc, increases with the decrease of the ratio ρ. On the other hand, the change of heat capacity at TC, ΔCp, exhibits linear increase with the ratio ρ. This relationship holds for microwires in the initial state as well as after annealing. Glass removal results in considerable change of both Hc and ΔCp, which reveals the effect of internal stresses. Structural relaxation of microwires results in a shift of TC calorimetric peak of amorphous phase to higher temperatures, while crystallization leads to peak disappearance. This effect was attributed to the dependency of TC calorimetric peak on the value of magnetostriction of magnetic phase, which declines to zero with Finemet alloys crystallization.