External pre-stressing is often used in strengthening or retrofitting of steel-concrete composite beams. In this way, a proper numerical model should be able to trace the completely nonlinear response of these structures at service and ultimate loads. A three dimensional finite element model based on shell elements for representing the concrete slab and the steel beam are used in this work. Partial interaction at the slab-beam interface can be taken into account by using special beam-column elements as shear connectors. External pre-stressed tendons are modeled by using one-dimensional catenary elements. Contact elements are included in the analysis to represent the slipping at the tendon-deviator locations. Validation of the numerical model is established by simulating seven pre-stressed steel-concrete composite beams with experimental results. The model predictions agree well with the experimental results in terms of collapse loads, path failures and cracking lengths at negative moment regions due to service loads. Finally, the accuracy of some simplified formulas found in the specialized literature to predict cracking lengths at interior supports at service loading and for the evaluation of ultimate bending moments is also examined in this work.