<p>The burr, ablation, and delamination defects are inevitable for the milling hole process of carbon fiber reinforced composite (CFRP). Based on the laminated material structure and milling motion characteristics, this paper studies the cutting stress and cooling temperature on the cutting rule. A series of milling hole at different temperatures was carried out using liquid nitrogen (LN₂) coolant as well as dry milling hole. Meanwhile, the hole morphology, milling force, temperature, and so on were measured and analyzed in detail. The results show that the change of cutting stress causes the different chip breaking ability considering cooling temperature as well as the delamination defect. And the cracking degree at hole outlet is smaller at − 130℃ compared with that at − 190℃. It indicates that the too low cryogenic temperature will lead to a negative effect on the delamination of milling hole. In addition, the axial feed <i>f</i>_<i>a</i> has a greater impact on the axial milling force than the horizontal feed<i> f</i>_<i>t</i>, which has more than 20N variation range effect, and the lower axial feed and larger horizontal feed should be selected to improve the cutting efficiency. The cutting temperature of dry milling hole with the cutting temperature is below 0℃, even 240 m/min at cryogenic temperature while it exceeds 200℃ with 120 m/min milling speed for the dry one. Furthermore, cryogenic temperature cooling technology changes the milling stress of milling hole processes, and obviously improves the defects of conversional milling hole.</p>