Various industrial and engineering operations are accompanied with the phenomena of heating and cooling and in such situations, the construction of relevant thermal devices for use in energy and electronic devices is crucial. For efficient performance of such devices, entropy generation should be reduced in the processes. Hence, this study focuses on the impact of nonlinear thermal radiation with entropy production on the steady flow of magneto-micropolar fluid. The flow is generated by a nonlinear stretchable sheet with the influence of variable fluid properties and convective surface heating condition. The controlling mathematical equations are transmuted from partial to ordinary differential equations by similarity conversion procedures and then numerically integrated using shooting techniques accompanied by Runge-Kutta scheme. The graphs of the main physical quantities affecting the velocity, temperature, entropy generation and Bejan number are displayed and discussed. The comparison of the results revealed good relationship with existing ones in literature in the limiting conditions for special cases. From the analysis, it is found that the growth in the magnitude of Prandtl and Eckert numbers enhance entropy generation while the dominance of viscous and Ohmic heating irreversibility over heat transfer irreversibility is observed with a rise in both parameters due to a decline in Bejan number. •The thermal boundary layer grows in the presence of thermal radiation.•Micropolar fluid and wall excess ratio enhance entropy generation.•Fluid friction and magnetic field irreversibility rises with magnetic field.•Hydrodynamic boundary layer falls with growth in viscosity and porosity.•Wall excess temperature ratio strengthens heat transfer irreversibility.