Accurate tritium transport properties of prospective tritium permeation barriers (TPBs) are essential to tritium systems in fusion reactors. By passing a temperature and rate-controlled sweeping gas over specimen surfaces to carry the permeated tritium to an ion chamber, the gas-driven permeation of tritium has been performed on 321 type stainless steel containers with Al2O3/FeAl barriers, to determine the T-permeation resistant performance and mechanism of the barrier. The tritium permeability of the Al2O3/FeAl coated container was reduced by 3 orders of magnitude at 500–700 °C by contrast with that of the bare one, which meets the requirement of the tritium permeation reduction factor (PRF) of TPBs for tritium operating components in the CN-HCCB TBM. The Al2O3/FeAl barrier resists the tritium permeation by the diffusion in the bulk substrate at a limited number of defect sites with an effective area and thickness, suggesting that the TPB quality is a very important factor for efficient T-permeation resistance. •T-permeation has been measured on bare and coated type 321 SS containers.•Al2O3/FeAl coating give a reduction of T-permeability of 3 orders of magnitude.•Mechanism of Al2O3/FeAl barrier resisting T-permeation has obtained.•Quality of TPB is a very important factor for efficient T-permeating reduction.