This study explains the effects of lubricant and surface treatment on hot forging die life. The mechanical and thermal load, and thermal softening which is happened by the high temperature of die, in hot and warm forging, cause die wear, heat checking and plastic deformation, etc. This study is fur the effects of solid lubricants and surface treatment condition for hot forging die. Because cooling effect and low friction are essential to the long life of dies, optimal surface treatment and lubricant are very important to improve die life for hot forging process. The main factors, which affect die hardness and heat transfer, are surface treatments and lubricants, which are related to thermal diffusion coefficient and heat transfer coefficient, etc. For verifying these effects, experiments are performed for hot ring compression test and heat transfer coefficient in various conditions as like different initial billet temperatures and different loads. The effects of lubricant and surface treatment for hot forging die life are explained by their thermal characteristics. The new developed technique in this study for predicting tool life can give more feasible means to improve the tool life in hot forging process.