Dielectron production in the πN interaction at not large energies is studied assuming that the electron- positron pair is produced from splitting of the virtual time-like photon. It allows us to get the interesting information on a nucleon form factor in the time-like region of four momentum transfer squared. The dominant contribution of the Δ-isobar creation in the intermediate state at incident pion momenta of about 0.3–0.4 GeV/c is shown. The experimental distributions over the angle and effective mass $${M_{{e^ + }{e^ - }}}$$ M e + e − of the e+e− pair are described satisfactorily. This stimulated us to present theoretical predictions for the $${M_{{e^ + }{e^ - }}}$$ M e + e − distribution in the process π−p → ne+e− at different incident momenta, which could be verified, for example, by the HADES experiments.