Although laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB/M) additive manufacturing (AM) specimens can have static mechanical properties equal to or even higher than conventional counterparts, the dynamic properties such as fatigue strength are lower in these materials, especially in as-built condition. The main concerns in AM parts that reduce the fatigue limit are irregular shape lack of fusions or spherical gas pores and surface roughness valleys acting as fatigue crack nucleation sites. The mentioned defects, if they are large and sharp enough, can overpass the nucleation stage in the fatigue mechanism and reduce the required stress level for crack propagation due to stress concentration on the sharpest edge. Although fatigue resistance of the AM parts is a considerable concern, the time-consuming and costly nature of the fatigue tests are barriers to further investigation and improvement of this mechanical property. As a result, rapid fatigue tests can be employed to lower the time, cost, and required number of specimens needed for a complete fatigue mechanism study. In this work, PBF-LB/M stainless steel (SS) 316L specimens were printed and characterized in terms of surface roughness, Hardness, defect inspection, and microstructure. The effect of these characteristics on the fatigue limit was studied using a recent rapid fatigue test method, the stiffness method. The stiffness method, which was developed and verified in fatigue limit estimation of wrought metal sheets, proved to be effective and applicable in fatigue strength estimation of the AM specimens with only less than a 3% difference compared to the results of the staircase method. Moreover, fractography of the failed specimens in both testing methods showed the same fatigue mechanism, starting from near or on-surface lack of fusion, which supported the idea that the stiffness method can simulate the conventional tests and obtain close fatigue limit values with 2-3 specimens and in a significantly shorter time.