Physical and numerical simulations study of heat input dependence of cracking in the weld heat affected zone (HAZ) in a nickel base superalloy, IN 718, was performed. Gleeble thermo‐mechanical physical simulation showed that increase in resistance to cracking with heat input is associated with enhanced hot ductility of the alloy. Numerical calculations by finite element analysis show that in addition to the improved hot ductility, reduction in the HAZ cracking with increase in heat input is also attributed to a decrease in the gradient of the thermally generated strain rate during weld cooling.