This work investigates the effects of cutting parameters on surface roughness (Ra, µm), cutting temperature (T, °C) at the chip–tool interface and the material removal rate during hard machining of AISI 1015 (43 ± 1 HRC) steel using carbide insert under dry and spray impingement cooling environment. A combined technique using orthogonal array and analysis of variance was employed to investigate the contribution of spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut and air pressure on responses. It is observed that with spray impingement cooling, cutting performance improves compared to dry cutting. The predicted multi-response optimization setting (N3-f1-d1-P2) ensures minimization of surface roughness, cutting temperature and maximization of material removal rate.