Pulse laser welding of AISI 304 stainless steel plate was simulated to find optimal welding conditions by using commercial finite element code MARC. Due to geometric symmetry, a half model of AISI 304 stainless steel plate was considered and user subroutines were applied to boundary condition for the heat transfer. Material properties such as conductivity, specific heat, mass density and latent heat were given as a function of temperature. A moving heat source was designed on the basis of experimental data. As a result, Nd:YAG laser welding for AISI 304 stainless steel was successfully simulated and it should be useful to determine optimal welding condition.