This paper deals with a problem where the effect of variable magnetic field and chemical reaction on free convective flow of an electrically conducting incompressible water based nanofluid over an exponentially stretching sheet has been investigated. In the present study, Buongiorno model associated with Brownian motion and thermophoretic diffusion is employed to describe the heat transfer enhancement of nanofluids. Some suitable similarity transformations reduced the governing boundary layer non-linear partial differential equations into a set of ordinary non-linear differential equations. The transformed equations are then solved numerically using fourth order Runga-Kutta method along with Shooting technique. The major outcomes of the present study is that the magnetic field impedes the fluid motion while thermal as well as mass buoyancy forces accelerate it, the thermophoretic diffusion enhances dimensionless fluid temperature as well as concentration leading to thicker thermal and concentration boundary layers. On the other hand, concentration exponent, Brownian motion parameter and chemical reaction parameter exhibit reverse trend on temperature and concentration. In addition, the presence of magnetic field under the influence of thermal as well as mass buoyancies supports to reduce the rate of heat transfer as well as wall shear stress while the first order chemical reaction develops a thinner concentration boundary layer. (C) 2017 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.