Friction stir processing (FSP) can be used to improve surface composites. In this study, a modified method of FSP called friction stir vibration processing (FSVP) was applied to develop a surface composite on AZ91 magnesium alloy. In this technique, the workpiece is vi-brated normal to the processing direction. The results illustrated that compared with the FSP method, the FSVP caused a better homogeneous distribution of SiC particles in the microstructure. The results also showed that matrix grains of friction stir vibration processed (FSV-pro-cessed) samples ((26.43 ± 2.00) μm) were finer than those of friction stir processed (FS-processed) specimens ((39.43 ± 2.00) μm). The results indicated that the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of FSV-processed specimens (361.82 MPa) was higher than that of FS-processed specimens (324.97 MPa). The higher plastic strain in the material during FSVP, due to workpiece vibration, resulted in higher dynamic recrystallization, and consequently, finer grains were developed. The elongation and formability index of the FSV-processed specimen (16.88％ and 6107.52 MPa·％, respectively) were higher than those of the FS-processed sample (15.24％ and 4952.54 MPa·％, respectively). Moreover, the effects of FSVP were also found to intensify as the vibration frequency increased.