The trifluoroacetate metal-organic decomposition route to YBa2Cu3O7 film growth was investigated in order to bring new insights in the growth mechanism and its dependence on processing conditions and critical current density. Precursor films were processed on LaAlO3 substrates at different total pressure, oxygen partial pressure, water vapor partial pressure, and volume gas flow rate keeping the growth temperature at 740 °C. The influence of these various experimental parameters on the film growth rate, which was evaluated by in situ electrical resistance measurements, was studied thoroughly. It was found that the growth rate is nearly independent of the oxygen pressure and proportional to the square root of the water pressure. Additionally, the growth rate increases with a decrease of the total pressure or an increase of the gas flow rate. An empirical multi-exponential model simulates the experimental data, however, a better understanding was achieved using a theoretical solid–gas reaction–diffusion model, including both the diffusion of the product HF gas from the surface and the chemical reaction kinetics at the YBCO/precursor interface. A complex cross-linked relationship between the film growth rate and the processing parameters has been properly verified from the experimental data. Finally we showed that the growth rate is an important parameter influencing the critical current densities of YBCO films because it controls the nucleation of non-c-axis oriented grains.