Tension leveling is the process that removes the shape defects such as edge waves and center buckles, which may be formed in the rolled strip. The main purpose of tension leveling is to eliminate the differences in elongation in order to reduce the residual stresses. In this paper, a new approach for the optimization of the process conditions in tension leveling is presented. This new approach is an analytic model that predicts the residual stresses from the strip curvature. The prediction accuracy of the proposed model is examined through comparison with the predictions from a finite element model.