Abstract: A total of twenty genotypes of peanut (Arachis hypogaea) were used to investigate the differences in nitrogen (N) utilization characteristics in a pot experiment with ¹⁵N isotope tracing analysis. Results showed the main N sources for peanut in high fertility soils following as soil N source > N fixed by root nodule source > fertilizer N source. The N uptake and accumulation in peanut from total N and the three N supplied sources (fertilizer N, soil N and N fixation) varied among the different genotypes. N fixation source had the largest genetic variation among the twenty genotypes while genetic variation for fertilizer N source and soil N source were lower and similar. Significant differences showed among the twenty genotypes in pod producing efficiency of N and N use efficiency, and the highest values were respectively 3.6 and 2.1 times of the lowest values. There were also significant differences among the twenty genotypes in the harvest indexes of total N, fertilizer N source, soil N source and N fixation source, and the largest variation showed in the harvest index of N fixation source. The pod yields significantly or extremely significantly corrected with N accumulation amounts from different N sources, N harvest index, pod producing efficiency of N, and N use efficiency. According to N uptake and accumulation and pod yield, four major types of peanut were classified, namely high total N accumulation & high yield type, high fertilizer N source & high yield type, high soil N source & high yield type, and high N fixation source & high yield type. Four of the twenty genotypes had all characteristics of the four major types.