Drought is one of the most important abiotic stresses that affects the growth and production of crops. Therefore, the need to breed cultivars that have high compatibility and low water demand is strongly felt. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of irrigation levels on cultivars and promising lines of cotton, to use the stress tolerance and susceptibility indices for identification and selection of drought tolerant genotypes, as well as to compare cotton promising lines with control cultivars of Aria and Ghoze Ghermez (which are suitable for cotton growing areas in Khorasan and Isfahan provinces). For this purpose, an experiment was performed according to the split-plot design with three replications under four irrigation levels (normal, 25, 50 and 75% deficit irrigation compared with normal) in 2020 at Kashmar. The results showed that the irrigation level had a significant effect on all traits except for keel percentage and earliness. The trait of single boll weight decreased by 7, 24 and 32% at the irrigation levels of 25, 50 and 75%, respectively, compared to the normal regime. In the same conditions, the total yield also decreased by 3, 34 and 48%, respectively. There was a significant difference between genotypes in terms of all studied traits (except for keel percentage and earliness) and drought tolerance and susceptibility indices, which indicates high genetic diversity among the genotypes and can be effective in improving selection in the breeding programs. Mean comparison of traits in the four irrigation levels showed that with the reduction of irrigation levels from 25 to 75%, the average of all traits decreased and the greatest decrease was observed in the 75% moisture regime. In each of the four irrigation levels, control cultivars were superior to promising lines in terms of single boll weight, second harvest yield, and total yield. However, in terms of the traits of keel percentage, early maturity, number of vegetative and reproductive branches, and number of open bolls, the promising lines were superior to the control cultivars. In each of the three moisture stress regimes, the control cultivars of Ghoze Ghermez and Aria did not show any difference in stress tolerance, but compared to hybrids, the promising lines had between 5 and 25% more stress tolerance in terms of various traits.