We study the temperature sensitivity of the Auger recombination rates in 1.55 &mgr;m InP‐based strained‐layer (SL) quantum‐well (QW) lasers on the basis of the band structures obtained by the self‐consistent numerical solution of the Poisson equation, the scalar effective‐mass equation for the conduction band, and the multiband effective mass equation for the valence band. The results of the theoretical analysis are then compared with the recent experimental results to clarify the basic physical mechanism which determines the Auger recombination rates in SL‐QW lasers. It is shown that the recent temperature sensitivity measurements of Auger recombination coefficients can be consistently explained in terms of the direct band‐to‐band Auger process in the quasi‐two‐dimensional system. We demonstrate that the Auger recombination process in 1.55 &mgr;m InP‐based SL‐QW lasers is mainly dominated by the direct band‐to‐band Auger process regardless of QW structures in the temperature range of 273–398 K. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.