The paper reports the thermo-therapeutic applications of chitosan- and PEG-coated nickel ferrite (NiFe2O4) nanoparticles. In this study NiFe2O4 nanoparticles were synthesized by the co-precipitation method, tuning the particle size through heat treatment in the temperature range from 200-800 °C for 3 h. XRD and TEM analysis revealed that the the ultrafine nanoparticles were of size 2-58 nm. Crystallinity of the NiFe2O4 nanoparticles in the as-dried condition with the particle size ∼2-3 nm was confirmed from the presence of a lattice fringe in the HRTEM image. VSM measurements showed that a superparamagnetic/ferromagnetic transition occurs with increasing particle size, which was further confirmed by Mössbauer spectroscopy. The nickel ferrite nanoparticles with optimum particle size of 10 nm were then coated with materials commonly used for biomedical applications, i.e. chitosan and PEG, to form homogeneous suspensions. The hydrodynamic diameter and the polydispersity index (PDI) were analyzed by dynamic light scattering at the physiological temperature of 37 °C and found to be 187 nm and 0.21 for chitosan-coated nanoparticles and 285 nm and 0.32 for PEG-coated ones. The specific loss power of rf induction heating by the set-up for hyperthermia and r 2 relaxivity by the nuclear magnetic resonance were determined. The results of induction heating measurements showed that the temperature attained by the nanoparticles of size 10 nm and concentration of about 20 mg ml(-1) was >70 °C (for chitosan) and >64 °C (for PEG). It has been demonstrated that the required temperature for hyperthermia heating could be tuned by tuning the particle size, shape and magnetization and the concentration of solution. For other potential biomedical applications of the NiFe2O4 nanoparticle solution, e.g. magnetic resonance imaging, the NMR studies yielded the T 1 and T 2 relaxivities as 0.348 and 89 mM(-1) s(-1) respectively. The fact that the T 2 relaxivity is orders of magnitude higher than T 1 indicates that this is suitable as a T 2 contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging.