The present invention relates to a piston (10, 110, 210, 310) for an internal combustion engine having a piston head (13) and a piston skirt (14), the piston (10, 110, 210, 310) comprising a piston base (11, 111, 211, 311) and a piston ring element (12, 112, 212, 312), the piston head (13) having a combustion recess (21, 121, 221). The invention is characterized in that the piston ring element (12, 112, 212, 312) has a portion (19b) of a piston crown, a circumferential fire land (22) and a circumferential ring section (23) with ring grooves, in that the piston base (11, 111, 211, 311) and the piston ring element (12, 112, 212, 312) form a circumferential cooling channel (24, 124, 224, 324) that extends between an inner lateral surface (25, 125, 225) in the region of the combustion recess (21, 121, 221) and an outer lateral surface (26, 126, 226, 326) in the region of the ring section (23), in that in the cooling channel (24, 124, 224, 324) on the outer lateral surface (26, 226) at least one flow guide element (31, 331) and / or on the inner lateral surface (125, 225) at least one heat conducting element (132, 232) is provided; and in that the piston base (11, 111, 211, 311) and the piston ring element (12, 112, 212, 312) have a circumferential seam (28) in the region of the piston crown (19a, 19b), via which they are non-detachably connected to one another.