Purpose <p>Cryoneedle artifacts are frequently observed in MRI-guided cryoablations, and may obscure visualization of critical anatomy and compromise needle placement accuracy. This work experimentally investigated the contributing factors of these artifacts to identify effective mitigation strategies.</p> Materials and Methods <p>Ex vivo porcine tissue with inserted cryoneedles was imaged on a 1.5-Tesla MRI. Fast spin echo (FSE) and spoiled gradient echo (GRE) sequences with echo times from 1.04 to 60&#xa0;ms and specific absorption rates (SARs) from 0.01 to 2.1 W/kg were used. During MRI, cryoneedle temperatures were monitored using fiber-optic sensors. Configurations with one to three cryoneedles oriented at 0-degree or 45-degree angles to the patient table were investigated. The body coil was used for transmit/receive, both with and without an additional receive-only surface loop coil. Artifact width and intensity were measured for analysis.</p> Results <p>Cryoneedle artifact widths were unrelated to echo time for both FSE (<i>p</i> = 0.6) and GRE (<i>p</i> = 0.3) and were smaller in GRE than in FSE images (<i>p</i> &lt;&lt; 0.05). Artifact widths correlated with cryoneedle temperature elevations (<i>r</i>² = 0.969, <i>p</i> &lt;&lt; 0.05) but were not correlated with SAR (GRE: <i>p</i> = 0.3; FSE: <i>p</i> = 0.5). The artifact intensity with the cryoneedle oriented at 0 degrees increased with a greater number of cryoneedles in the tissue (<i>p</i> = 0.006), and when the surface loop coil was used (<i>p</i> = 0.008).</p> Conclusion <p>Clinically observed cryoneedle artifacts compromising treatment efficacy can be indicative of tissue radiofrequency heating risk, and effectively mitigated by either using GRE-based sequences or adjusting coil/cryoneedle configurations.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>