Several modelling and observational studies suggest deep water formation in the subpolar North Pacific as a possible alternative mode of thermohaline circulation that occurred in the warm Pliocene, a time when global atmospheric partial pressure of carbon dioxide was like the modern atmosphere (~400 ppm). We test this hypothesis by measuring the δ¹³C of the benthic foraminifer Cibicidoides wuellerstorfi collected from northernmost Pacific mid-Piacenzian Warm Period (3.264–3.025 Myr ago) sediments. The data reveal progressively more isotopically negative dissolved inorganic carbon along a northward Equator-to-pole transect, the opposite of the expected Pliocene Pacific meridional overturning circulation signal. C. wuellerstorfi δ¹³C is also often more positive at the deeper Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) site 887 compared with the shallower ODP site 883, suggesting ‘bottom-up’ ventilation of the deep Pacific Ocean. We then present alkenone sea surface temperature and export-productivity data from ODP site 883, which suggest that late Pliocene subarctic North Pacific carbonate sedimentation was, at least in part, probably due to higher coccolithophore export production, rather than North Pacific Deep Water formation as previously argued. Therefore, we suggest it is unlikely that North Pacific Deep Water formation occurred in the mid-Piacenzian Warm Period, although a shallower overturning cell cannot be ruled out.