In order to improve the hardness and toughness of cutting tools, coatings of metal nitrides are used. Titanium based hard coatings are used in many industrial applications. The high temperature application in many industrial areas makes the thermal insulation behavior of these coatings equally important. In the present work, we have investigated the thermal properties of titanium-based coatings (TiN and TiAlN) using Finite element (FE) simulations. FE models are prepared using alternative layers of TiN (Titanium Nitride) and TiAlN (Titanium Aluminium Nitride) thin film coatings on SS 301 steel substrate. These models are analyzed to predict the heat transfer through the thin film coatings. Various models using different numbers of layers on the substrate material are formulated. The effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of multilayer coatings has been predicted and the simulated results are compared with the reported experimental values. The ETC for 50 bilayer deposition of TiN and TiAlN has been reported as approximately to 3.85 W/m °C and the simulated results through FE simulations validate the same. The defects formed during deposition have been studied by incorporating the thermal contact conductance in FE models. These defects result in phonons scattering between layers and reduce the ETC values.