Here the assessment of entropy generation with Soret and Dufour impact in flow of MHD Prandtl fluid along an unsteady stretching surface has been measured. Nonlinear mixed convection and convective conditions for heat/mass transfer are imposed at the surface. The outcome of viscous dissipation and radiation is considered in heat transfer features. The obtained system of nonlinear PDEs is converted to ODEs by consuming dimensionless variables. Resulting systems are solved for the convergent solutions. Impacts of Prandtl fluid parameters, unsteadiness parameter, Soret and Dufour numbers, magnetic parameter, nonlinear thermal and concentration parameter, Prandtl number, radiation parameter, thermal and concentration Biot numbers, ratio of concentration to thermal buoyancy, Eckert number and Schmidt number are addressed. Skin friction coefficient, local Nusselt and Sherwood numbers are analyzed graphically. Unsteady parameter $${ \epsilon }$$ ϵ has reverse behavior on the velocity and temperature profiles, velocity declines while temperature raises. Prandtl fluid parameter $${ \alpha }$$ α and $${ \beta }$$ β boost the velocity field. Mixed convection parameter le and N* (ratio of concentration and buoyancy force) enhance the velocity field and resultant boundary layer thickness. Magnetic parameter change its behavior on $$f(\eta )$$ f ( η ) $$\theta (\eta )$$ θ ( η ) and . Soret/Dufour number enhances the energy flux due to mass transfer rate and mass flux which radically increases the temperature. Far away from the wall entropy generation grows rapidly for greater values of a and b. Magnetic and radiation parameter increase the entropy generation while radiation parameter decreases.