Substantial effort has focused on understanding spatial variation in dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) export to the coastal zone and specific basins have been studied in depth. Much less is known, however, about seasonal patterns and controls of coastal DIN delivery across large spatial scales. Understanding seasonal patterns of DIN export is critical to efforts to predict impacts of coastal eutrophication, such as algal blooms and hypoxic areas, which are often seasonal phenomena. Here we describe, test, and apply a global model that predicts seasonal DIN export to coastal regions for >6000 rivers using the Nutrient Export from Watersheds (NEWS2) model. NEWS2-DIN-S used spatially explicit, seasonal N inputs and was calibrated with measured DIN yield (kg N km−2 season−1) for 77 rivers, distributed globally. Of the characteristics considered, DIN-transport efficiency was positively related to runoff and negatively related to temperature (r2 = 0.34–0.60, depending on season p