Reducing the surface roughness of machined workpieces is of great interest owing to its potential for improving the quality of finished items and decreasing the cost of machining processes by reducing the need for post processing. This paper contributes to this research by analyzing the effect of P10 cemented carbide cutting tools subjected to pulsed electromagnetic coupling field processing (EMCFP) treatment on the surface roughness of machined 45 steel workpieces. The effects of untreated and EMCFP-treated cutting tools on workpiece surface roughness, tool lifetime, friction coefficient, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra, dislocation density and residual stress are compared. The experimental results demonstrate that EMCFP treatment can reduce the average surface roughness of workpieces by 39.2%, enhance tool lifetime by a factor of 1.92, reduce the friction coefficient by 11.4%, increase the intensities of peak EPR signals, increase the dislocation density by 38% and decrease the residual stress of the tool flank face by 51.4% . This research provides scientific data and technical support for EMCFP technology with important scientific significance.