Due to inherently thin pole tips which enhance the sharpness of read/write pulses, thin-film magnetic recording heads provide a unique potential for increasing disk file capacity. However, the very feature of these heads which makes them attractive in the recording process, namely, their small size, also makes thin-film heads difficult to study experimentally. For this reason, a finite element simulation of the thin-film head has been developed to provide the magnetic field distribution and the resistance/inductance characteristics of these heads under a variety of conditions. A study based on a one-step multipath eddy current procedure is reported. This procedure may be used in thin film heads to compute the variation of magnetic field with respect to frequency. Computations with the IBM 3370 head show that a large phase shift occurs due to eddy currents in the frequency range 1–10 MHz.