Inoculation and its link with the solidification structure is a relatively new field for low alloy steels. In this study, a cold crucible setup is used to realize direct particle inoculation of 50 g steel ingots. Eight different inoculants powders (oxides, nitrides and carbides) were tried with a 0.3 mass% level addition. Solidification structure sizes and morphologies, presence of inoculant particles and microsegregation have been characterized for all the samples. The best grain refinements were obtained for Si₃N₄, TiN and CeO₂ additions whereas the lowest microsegregation intensities are achieved for Si₃N₄, HfC and W₂C additions. The properties of the inoculants – misfits, solubility products and terminal velocities – are used to discuss those changes. The grain refinement could be linked to the misfit in good agreement with the literature. Other morphological changes (secondary arm spacing and dendricity) were attributed to the presence of inert particles staying inside the liquid during the solidification. Last but not the least, the flattest microsegregation profiles were possibly due to inoculant dissolution leading to a change in the MnS precipitation sequence.