Abstract The main purpose of this research work is to explore the formation of chromium oxide-nitride coatings by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering using chromium as a target, oxygen and nitrogen as reactive gases, along with helium as an inert gas. The consequence of temperature variation on the formation of chromium oxide-nitride coatings and their properties is reported in this paper. The identification of respective oxide/nitride phases of chromium was done by X-ray diffraction. A wettability study of chromium oxide-nitride coatings was done using a contact angle–measuring system. Initially, at a lower deposition temperature of 200°C, the deposited films were amorphous. However, when the temperature was increased from 200°C to 600°C, the formation of crystalline films was observed, and its wettability behavior was transmuted from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. The influence of temperature variation on the tribological properties of mixed chromium oxide-nitride coatings is examined.