The effect of oxygen on the shape memory characteristics in Ti-18Nb-6Zr-XO (X = 0-1.5 at%) biomedical alloys was investigated by tensile tests. The alloys were fabricated by an arc melting method at Ar atmosphere. The ingots were cold-rolled to 0.45 mm with a reduction up to 95% in thickness. After severe cold-rolling, the plate was solution-treated at 1173 K for 1.8 ks. The fracture stress of the solution-treated specimens increased from 450 Mpa to 880 MPa with an increasing oxygen content up to 1.5%. The fracture stress increased by 287MPa with 1 at% increase of oxygen content. The critical stress for slip increased from 430 MPa to 695 MPa with an increasing oxygen content up to 1.5 at%. The maximum recovery strain of 4.1% was obtained in the Ti-18Nb-6Zr-0.5O (at%) alloy. The martensitic transformation temperature decreased by 140 K with a 1.0 at% increase in O content, which is lower than that of Ti-22Nb-(0-2.0)O (at%) by 20 K. This may have been caused by the effect of the addition of Zr. This study confirmed that addition of oxygen to the Ti-Nb-Zr alloy increases the critical stress for slip due to solid solution hardening without being detrimental to the maximum recovery strain.