In this paper, buckling of cylindrical grooved shells under axial load has been examined by theoretical and experimental methods. The shell is made of USA/API – X42 5L steel standards. This material is one of the most common materials used in gas, oil and petrochemical industries. The effect of spiral grooves on cylindrical shell was analyzed, and the results obtained from the Abaqus software were compared with experimental results. Theoretical and experimental results were in good agreement. Hence, the numerical results can be used as well. It was also found that the number of grooves on the critical buckling load has an important role so that the critical buckling load decreases with an increase in critical load groove.