Under seismic excitation, a pile undergoes stresses stemming from both the vibration of the surrounding soil (kinematic interaction) and that of the superstructure (inertial interaction). The relative contributions of kinematic and inertial interaction on the magnitude of seismic forces induced in pile foundations are investigated by means of nonlinear two-dimensional (2D) finite element (FE) analyses. The interaction between the pile and the surrounding soil in three-dimensional (3D) type was idealized in the 2D analysis using soil–pile interaction springs with hysteretic nonlinear load displacement relationships. Parametric analyses are carried out, focusing on normalized seismic forces in the piles as affected by typical characteristics of structures and piles as well as ground nonlinearity. The results of the study provide a new interpretation of the interplay between pile kinematic and inertial seismic forces. The numerical results showed that for relatively short/stiff piles or where structure’s natural frequency is lower than that of the ground, the kinematic interaction can be the prime contributor to the seismic forces in the pile provided that the excitation frequency is not close to the natural frequency of the coupled soil–pile–structure system, fSSI. In a frequency band approaching fSSI, the inertial interaction generally prevails imposing large bending moments at or near the pile head. The results showed also that maximum kinematic seismic force does not always occur at the fundamental frequency of the deposit. For certain relative soil–pile stiffness and excitation amplitudes, the largest peak of the kinematic seismic forces in piles can be occurring at the second mode.