PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the effects of inertia of the lubricant on the performance parameters of journal bearings textured with spherical-shaped textures. Design/methodology/approachThe lubricant is assumed to be Newtonian, and the flow is considered laminar. Considering the lubricant inertia effects, the modified Reynolds equation is discretized using the finite difference method and solved with the Gauss-Seidel successive over-relaxation scheme using the progressive mesh densification method. FindingsThe results from this numerical study indicate that the lubricant inertia improves textured journal bearing performance characteristics significantly. The improvement is more significant in the case of heavily loaded bearings. Furthermore, it is observed that protruded texturing in journal bearings shows better results compared to dimple textured journal bearings. Originality/valueUnderstanding the effect of lubricant inertia is essential for efficiently designing textured journal bearings. Thus, the results shown here would be helpful for the researchers and the bearing designers.