This paper aims at the study of numerical investigation into the three-dimensional steady-state flow of a nanofluid under the effect of thermal radiation as well as heat generation/absorption over a nonlinearly stretching sheet. The set of partial differential equations is transformed into ordinary differential equations by employing the suitable similarity transformations. The solution to the governing equation is obtained by using numerical techniques specifically the bvp4c function in MATLAB. A nonuniform velocity with power-law index is the boundary condition specified for solving the governing equation. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.