The gun is an air-cooled, recoil-operated design, firing standard 7.92×57mm Mauser ammunition, fed from a slightly curved 30-round magazine inserted in the left side of the weapon.
The MG 30 fired both in semi-automatic and full automatic mode depending on how far the two-stage trigger is pulled, with a rate of fire between 600 and 800 rounds per minute in full-auto.