The polarographic behavior of thiamethoxam (a neonicotinoid insecticide) was studied by direct current and differential pulse polarography. Depending on the pH thiamethoxam exhibited one or two well-defined cathodic polarographic waves. The characteristics of the electrode reaction were investigated and it was found that at pH > 5.0 the target molecule captures four electrons in the first step, and two in the second. Based on the reduction behavior of the target molecule on the mercury electrode, a differential pulse polarographic method was elaborated for the rapid determination of thiamethoxam at pH 8.0. With the optimized method, a linear response for thiamethoxam was found in the concentration range of 31.1 − 470 ng cm⁻³, the relative standard deviation did not exceed 1.6%, and the detection and quantitation limits were found to be 9.3 ng cm⁻³ and 31.1 ng cm⁻³, respectively. The method was applied to the determination of thiamethoxam in commercial formulations and real samples (potato and maize). The procedure is simple, fast, sensitive, and compares well with comparative spectrophotometric and chromatographic (HPLC/DAD) methods.