This letter demonstrates that recombination lifetimes in excess of 5 ms can be achieved in the oxidized magnetic Czochralski (MCZ) silicon by a combination of high‐purity crystal growth, proper cleaning and oxidation conditions. Lifetime studies were conducted at room temperature on as‐grown as well as oxidized 2000 &OHgr; cm low oxygen (∼5 ppm) MCZ silicon by an injection sensitive, contactless photoconductive decay technique with controlled injected carrier densities up to 1017cm−3. Record Shockley–Read–Hall lifetimes of 8.5 and 6.6 ms were achieved in the as‐grown and oxidized MCZ wafers, respectively. However, oxidized Czochralski (CZ) silicon with 14.2 ppm oxygen gave lifetime of only 200 &mgr;s due to much higher concentrations of as‐grown and process‐induced defects. Lifetime versus injection level analysis gave ambipolar Auger recombinationCcoefficient of 1.1×10−30(±9%) cm6 s−1before and after the oxidation in both MCZ and CZ silicon. Unlike theCcoefficient, theBcoefficient (radiative band‐to‐band + trap‐assisted Auger) in low‐oxygen MCZ silicon was found to be four times smaller than the value in high oxygen CZ silicon.