<p>The conventional abrasive flow machining (AFM) process has limited performance when used for finishing of materials with stringent properties, due to inadequate finishing forces. Therefore, external assistance like magnetic field, ultrasonic vibrations, and rotating motion is used additionally with conventional AFM processes to improve its efficacy. The effectiveness of these assistances can be evaluated by performing experimental investigations. A comparative study of different AFM variants has been conducted in this paper. An experimental setup consisting of ultrasonic assistance and magnetic field assistance has been used for the analysis. The finishing performance of conventional AFM has been compared with ultrasonic-assisted abrasive flow machining (UAAFM), magnetic abrasive flow machining (MAFM), and ultrasonic-assisted magnetic abrasive flow machining (UAMAFM). A magnetic hydrogel-based abrasive media composed of natural gum-based hydrogel, SiC abrasives, and iron powder has been prepared and used to finish cylindrical titanium (Grade II) workpieces. The effect of media flow rate (FR), abrasive mesh size (MS), and hydrogel concentration (HC) has been investigated on the amount of material removed (MR) and percentage improvement in surface roughness (%Δ<i>R</i>_a). UAMAFM was found to have a maximum %Δ<i>R</i>_a of 48.48% compared to 15.26% for AFM without any assistance. Also, MAFM was found to have a better finishing performance than UAAFM but lower than UAMAFM.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>