Flowable fills, also called as Controlled Low Strength Materials (CLSM), are often used as alternative to compacted granular materials in specific situations like bedding layer to buried pipelines and backfill behind retaining walls. The fills are widely used in places where compaction cannot be done due to inaccessibility for moving compaction equipment and are often subjected to cyclic loading. While several studies are available in the literature on the static behaviour of flowable fills, the cyclic behaviour of flowable fills received less attention. This paper focuses on the cyclic behaviour of pond ash-based flowable fills. Comparative studies were carried out on compacted pond ash (CPA) specimens prepared at both standard and modified Proctor unit weight and optimum moisture content for similar testing conditions. The cyclic behaviour was studied by performing cyclic triaxial tests for different cyclic stress ratio (CSR) on both compacted pond ash and flowable fill. The results obtained based on cyclic triaxial tests showed that the flowable fills perform much better compared to the compacted pond ash specimens. © 2020, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.