The effects of cryorolling (CR) and CR followed by warm rolling (WR) on high cycle fatigue behaviour of Al 5083 alloy have been investigated in the present work. The Al 5083 alloy samples were rolled for different thickness reductions of 50 and 85% at cryogenic (liquid nitrogen) temperature. Fifty per cent cryorolled samples were subsequently warm rolled at 175°C for 70% reduction (WR). Hardness, tensile strength and fatigue life using constant amplitude stress controlled fatigue were investigated. The microstructural evolution of the alloy was characterised using optical microscopy, SEM and TEM techniques. The cryorolled Al alloy after 85% thickness reduction exhibits high dislocation density due to suppression of dynamic recovery, whereas WR alloy has shown fine subgrain structure in the range of 100–150 nm, associated with dynamic recovery and dynamic aging during WR. The Al 5083 alloy after WR has shown significant enhancement in fatigue strength as compared to the coarse grained solution treated (ST) bulk alloy and CR material. It can be attributed to the formation of fine precipitates during WR, which inhibits dynamic recovery during cyclic deformation; precipitate–dislocation tangled zones inhibits the crack propagation in the alloy. © 2014 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.