In this work, the effect of titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) thin film microstructure on photocatalytic and biological activity was described. The films were prepared by low-pressure and high-energy magnetron sputtering processes. The structural investigations performed by X-ray diffraction revealed that the films from both the processes were nanocrystalline. It was found that TiO 2 prepared by low-pressure process had the anatase structure with crystallites in size of 20 nm, while the film deposited in high-energy process had the rutile form with crystallites in size of 5 nm. The analysis of surface topography with the aid of optical profiler showed that all prepared films were homogenous and their roughness was lower than 1 nm. The wettability studies revealed hydrophilic nature of both films. The values of water contact angle obtained for anatase and rutile films were equal to 40°and 49°, respectively. Both types of the thin films were photocatalitycally active, but rutile exhibited higher decomposition rate as compared to anatase. During the photocatalytic reaction in the presence of TiO 2 -rutile film after 12 hours of UV-Vis irradiation 30 % of phenol was decomposed, whereas in case of TiO 2 -anatase it was only 10 %. Moreover, the influence of as-deposited coatings on the growth of selected microbes (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Candida albicans) was examined. It was found that the structural properties of TiO 2 had an effect on biological activity of these films.