Radial incision and cutting (RIC) was established to improve refractory esophageal anastomotic strictures but its efficacy and safety for nonsurgical refractory strictures remain unclear. To evaluate the usefulness of RIC in nonsurgical refractory strictures, we retrospectively compared outcomes between nonsurgical and surgical strictures. We retrospectively studied 54 consecutive patients who were initially treated with RIC for refractory benign esophageal stricture. The study variables included dysphasia score improvement rate, frequency of repeated RIC, cumulative patency rate, cumulative stricture improved rate, and adverse events(AEs), which were compared between nonsurgical (n = 21) and surgical (n = 33) stricture groups. Immediately after RIC, 90.5% of patients in the nonsurgical group and 84.8% of patients in the surgical group had improvement in dysphagia ( = 0.69). The frequency of intervening repeated RIC was 42.9% in the nonsurgical group and 42.4% in the surgical group ( = 0.98). During median follow-up of 22.3 months (range, 1.0-175.0), the cumulative patency rate ( = 0.23) and cumulative stricture improvement rate ( = 0.14) but there was not statistical difference between the two groups. Despite a low cumulative stricture improvement rate (9.5%) at 6 months after the first RIC in the nonsurgical group, 57.7% of patients no longer required endoscopic balloon dilatation at 2 years. The cumulative stricture improvement rate was significantly lower in patients with a history of radiation therapy. No severe AEs were observed in the nonsurgical group. RIC for nonsurgical refractory benign esophageal stricture is an effective and safe treatment option.