Machining is basically defined as a process of gradual material removal used to finish materials of desired surface finish and dimensional accuracy. For achieving the desired surface finish and dimensional accuracy every machining operation faces several difficulties such as localization of heat in the cutting zone resulting in various problems such as tool wear, increase in surface roughness, etc. So in order to overcome these problems the most common technique is to use cutting fluids. Cutting fluids are generally used for cooling and lubricating the machining zone. But there are various environmental constraints on the use of cutting fluids during the machining. As the continuous use of these cutting fluids have an adverse effect on human health and environment. Therefore it becomes very essential to go for some new technique which can either reduce the use of lubricants or completely avoid them. Thus surface texturing proved to be one of the promising techniques which helped in the improvement of tribological properties of textured tools. The surface textures have different geometrical size, shape and are generally created either on the flank surface or on the rake surface of the cutting tool. The quality of texture greatly depends on the manufacturing processes which have been used. Thus it becomes very essential to have a complete understanding of the associated parameters of any process. The basic mechanisms in the improvement of tribological properties are debris entrapment, reduction in contact length and improvement in lubrication capacity, which finally helps in improvement in reducing the cutting forces, tool wear and surface roughness of the work material. The current article presents an extensive literature survey carried out on the different aspects of textured cutting tools in machining processes – turning, drilling and milling. It includes the different techniques used in creating these textures on cutting tool, experimental setups, the mechanism how textured tool is performing better than conventional tool, different modelling and simulation techniques used and the effect of these textures on improvement in surface finish, reducing cutting forces, tool wear, friction and cutting temperature. © 2019 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers