Abstract Photon-induced deactivation of traps in MAPbI₃ can strongly affect charge relaxation behavior. Charge relaxation associated with photo-induced deactivation of various traps in MAPbI₃ films was investigated through steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy under laser excitation at 635 and 430 nm to investigate the properties of the traps. Three types of traps that could be deactivated by photons were observed in the MAPbI₃ films, namely T_L, T_H, and T_GB. T_L and T_H, which were related to MAPbI₃ bulk, had low and high photon energy thresholds (red and blue photons) for deactivation, respectively. T_GB was related to the traps at grain boundaries in MAPbI₃ and had a low photon energy threshold (red photons) for deactivation. The energy level of T_GB was higher than that of the conduction band of MAPbI₃. Under blue excitation, T_GB mediated a fast nonradiative recombination at few nanoseconds, and T_L and T_H mediated a slow nonradiative recombination at few 100 ns. The fast nonradiative recombination led to a significantly low initial normalized photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) (1/22) under blue excitation, compared with that obtained under red excitation (1/4). The deactivation of T_L and T_H resulted in increases in both the amplitude of PL and recombination time. The deactivation of T_GB resulted only in a significant increase in PLQY of blue excitation.