Beam elements are used both in load bearing structures and framed structures. To carry out an optimal design of reinforced concrete beam elements is an essential requirements to save cost. Optimization of reinforced concrete structural elements is a nonlinear problem. The problems are optimized for different types of loads and support conditions. The objective function is to minimize the total cost of the structural beam and design constraints for the beam are considered from the Indian Standard code. Breadth and depth were treated as continuous variables and the optimal design was carried out using Genetic Algorithm tool in MATLAB’s software. Best fit solutions for various generations are obtained for different types of support conditions. Genetic algorithm sometimes gave infeasible results due to the random nature of search carried out by genetic algorithms.