An increase of nitrogen content in a 0.02 wt% Ti-containing carbon-manganese steel resulted in a low coarsening rate of TiN particles in the heat-affected zone (HAZ), which led to an accelerated ferrite transformation instead of ferrite side plates during weld cooling cycle. The mixed microstructure of ferrite side plate, acicular ferrite and grain boundary polygonal ferrite in the simulated HAZ produced higher toughness. However, the increase of nitrogen content gradually increased the free nitrogen content in the HAZ and deteriorated HAZ toughness. Impact energy of the simulated HAZ (with Delta t(8/5) similar to 60 s) at -20 degrees C deteriorated by about 97 J per 0.001 wt% free nitrogen, in the free nitrogen range from 0.0009 wt% to 0.0034 wt%, even though the HAZ has the tough mixed microstructure. Cooling time after welding influenced the HAZ microstructure and toughness as well, and maximum toughness was obtained when cooling produced the tough mixed microstructure. Therefore, for a high HAZ toughness, both nitrogen content and cooling time should be controlled to obtain the tough mixed microstructure and to keep the free nitrogen content low. The optimal nitrogen content and cooling time from 800 degrees C to 500 degrees C were 0.006 wt% and between 60 s and 100 s, respectively, in this experiment.