The peripheral dose (PD), defined as the dose outside of therapeutic radiation beams, has been investigated for 60Co, 4‐, 6‐, and 10‐MV x‐ray machines. The measurements have been carried out down to dose levels of about 0.1% of the peak dose in the beam, since that dose level may be of clinical importance in some situations. The PD measurements for the various machines are qualitatively similar, which allows the identification of a simple basic data set which can characterize the PD for any particular machine. The PD has been separated into two components: in‐phantom scatter dose and transmission (leakage) dose. Knowledge of the two components is important clinically when shielding is considered.