High-speed laser cladding was utilized to prepare Inconel625 alloy coating on the surface of 304 stainless steel to improve the wear resistance of its components. Process parameters were optimized using feed rate, laser power, and scanning speed as variables, with hardness and width of the cladding layer as characterization metrics. Analysis of variance and extreme value analysis of orthogonal experiments were used to optimize these parameters, and the surface morphology of the cladding was examined. The physical composition of the cladding layer was detected using X-ray diffraction. Wear performance and morphology were analyzed using a friction and wear testing machine and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that the optimal combination of cladding process parameters is: laser power of 1 000 W, powder feeding rate of 3.0 r/min, scanning speed of 55 mm/s; the cladding layer phase mainly consists of Fe_0.64Ni_0.36, Mo₂C, Cr₂Fe₁₄C, NbC and other phases, which are enriched with a large number of hard phases and solid solution organizations. The friction coefficient of the base material is 0.850, and the friction coefficient of the fusion cladding layer is 0.504, which indicates that the wear resistance of the fusion cladding layer is better than that of the base material, and the wear of the fusion cladding layer is only 38.46% of that of the base material, which further indicates that the Inconel625 coating can significantly improve the wear resistance of 304 stainless steel.