Abstract: The evolution of residual stress and strain of pearlitic steel wire during seven-pass cold drawing was studied through finite element simulation. The influence of micro-tensile deformation (0.2%-1.4%) on the residual stress of the steel wire was revealed. The results show that with the increase of distance from the center in radial direction, the axial residual stress of the steel wire after the first cold drawing pass changed from compressive stress to tensile stress, and the residual tensile stress first increased and then decreased. The maximum axial residual compressive stress appeared at the center, and the maximum axial residual tensile stress appeared at the sub-surface. With increaring distance from the center, the axial strain of the steel wire first decreased and then increased, with the largest axial strain at center and the smallest strain at the sub-surface. With the increase of cold drawing passes, the axial residual tensile stress on the surface increased, and the differences in axial residual stresses and strains between the surface and the center increased. The relative error between the simulation and experimental results of axial residual stress was 7%, verifying the accuracy of the finite element model. Performing micro-tensile deformation on the steel wire after cold drawing could reduce the stress uniformity. With the increase of the tensile deformation amount, the improvement effect increased.