The understanding of the dynamic behavior of structures is essential to design them to resist the lateral loads due to earthquakes. Recent past earthquakes have demonstrated the importance of proper designing of structural members to avoid damages in the buildings and loss of life. Generally the lateral load resistance of masonry infilled moment resisting frames is achieved by frame action and truss action. In this paper the seismic performance of a G + 9 storeyed masonry infilled RC framed building is evaluated by linear and non-linear dynamic analysis. The analysis is carried out using the finite element software-ETABS. The response spectrum and time history pertaining to the specifications as given in the Indian Seismic Code IS 1893:2016 is considered for the analysis. Three different frame models are studied namely, bare frame, fully infilled frame and soft storey frame to understand the lateral load resistance of the frames. The dynamic characteristics of the frames such as time period, frequency, mode shapes, storey displacements, inter-storey drift, over-turning moments and energy dissipation capacity are evaluated and compared. The fully infilled frame shows better seismic behavior than that of other two frames though it attracts more forces. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.