The electric discharge machining (EDM) is an unconventional machining process. It is extensively used to generate complex profiles on electrically conductive materials having high-temperature resistance and high strength. Due to its wide applicability in manufacturing industries, EDM has become the most popular machining process after conventional machining processes such as turning, milling and drilling, etc. Despite several advantages, EDM process suffers from some limitations such as low material removal rate (MRR), high tool wear rate (TWR) and poor surface integrity in some cases. In past, several attempts have been made to overcome these limitations by augmenting EDM with techniques such as electrode rotation, ultrasonic vibrations and suspensions of powders into the dielectric fluid. Although these techniques are excellent from a research perspective, in practice, are applicable only for fewer applications. Another limitation in EDM process is its possible environmental pollution causing characteristic. During EDM process, material removal is a consequent of thermal energy produced by series of discrete electrical sparks occurring between a tool and work electrodes which are immersed in a dielectric medium mostly hydrocarbon oils. These oils produce serious toxic fumes causing the health hazard to the machine operator and environmental pollution. To overcome these limitations of EDM process, dry and near-dry variants of EDM were introduced. Dry EDM process utilizes a pressurized gaseous medium as a dielectric whereas, near-dry EDM process uses a combination of liquid and gas as a dielectric medium and are environmentally friendly. Near-dry electric discharge machining (EDM) and dry EDM are the process variants of the EDM process. This project reveals comparative study and optimum method between near-dry and dry EDM process to achieve the high material removal rate (MRR) and low tool wear rate (TWR).Two-phase dielectric (liquid and air) was utilized in near-dry EDM while only air was used in dry EDM. L27 orthogonal array was used to determine the effect of the pulse current, voltage, pulse on time, pulse off time and pressure on MRR and TWR in near-dry and dry EDM.