The current study aims at investigating the influence of different machining parameters such as cutting speed (V c ), feed (f) and depth of cut (t) on different performance measures during dry turning of AISI 304 austenitic stainless steel. ISO P30 grade uncoated cemented carbide inserts was used a cutting tool for the current purpose. L27 orthogonal array design of experiments was adopted with the following machining parameters: V c = 25, 35, 45 m/min., f= 0.1, 0.15, 0.2 mm/rev. and t= 1, 1.25, 1.5 mm. Three important characteristics of machinability such as material removal rate (MRR), cutting force (F c ) and surface roughness (R a ) were measured. Attempt was further made to simultaneously optimize the machining parameters using grey relational analysis. The recommended parametric combination based on the studied performance criteria (i.e. MRR, F c and R a ) was found to be V c =45m/min, f=0.1mm/rev, t=1.25mm. A confirmatory test was also carried out to support the analysis and an improvement of 88.78% in grey relational grade (GRG) was observed.