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Abstract Soil moisture (SM) plays a crucial role in altering climate extremes through complex land-atmosphere feedback processes. In the present study, we investigated the impact of SM perturbations on temperature extremes (ExT) over India for the historical period (1951–2010) and future climate projection (2051–2100) under 4 K warming scenario. We note that more than 70% area of the Indian landmass has experienced significant changes in characteristics of ExT due to SM perturbations. In particular, we see larger impact of SM perturbations on ExT over the north-central India (NCI), which is a hotspot of strong SM-temperature coupling. Over NCI, a 20% departure in SM significantly revamps frequency, duration and intensity of ExT by 2–5 events/year, 1-2 days/event and 0.5–2.1 °C, respectively, through modulating surface energy partitioning, evapotranspiration and SM memory. Importantly, the impact of SM perturbations on frequency and duration of ExT events becomes less prominent with intensification of global warming.