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We study the global atmospheric budgets of mass, moisture, energy and angular momentum in the latest reanalysis from the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), ERA‐Interim, for the period 1989–2008 and compare with ERA‐40. Most of the measures we use indicate that the ERA‐Interim reanalysis is superior in quality to ERA‐40. In ERA‐Interim the standard deviation of the monthly mean global dry mass of 0.7 kg m⁻² (0.007%) is slightly worse than in ERA‐40, and long time‐scale variations in dry mass originate predominately in the surface pressure field. The divergent winds are improved in ERA‐Interim: the global standard deviation of the time‐averaged dry mass budget residual is 10 kg m⁻² day⁻¹ and the quality of the cross‐equatorial mass fluxes is improved. The temporal variations in the global evaporation minus precipitation (E − P) are too large but the global moisture …