The current review proclaims the forced convective flow and heat–mass transfer characteristics of cross nanofluid past a bidirectional stretched surface. The most significant aim of the current review is to incorporatethe features of Buongiorno relation, activation energy, nonlinear thermal radiation and heat sink–source for a three-dimensional flow of the cross fluid. Appropriate transformations are employed to transform the modelledpartial differential equations (PDEs) of momentum, temperature and concentration into coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The governing boundary value problem is numerically integrated with the help of bvp4c scheme. The obtained numerical data are plotted for the temperature and concentration profiles of nanofluid for various converging values of physical parameters. The dependence of increasing thermophysical parameters on temperature and concentration profiles of the cross nanofluid is graphically demonstrated. Furthermore, detailedstudy reveals that the concentration of the cross nanofluid decreases for increasing values of Brownian motion parameter. It is also perceived from the sketches that the concentration of the cross nanofluid decreases for higher values of chemical reaction parameter. The validity of the achieved numerical outcomes is ensured by making a comparison with the existing work as special cases.