A simple, sensitive and green spectrophotometric method for the determination of metoclopramide hydrochloride (MTC) has been developed. The method is based on the reaction of MTC with p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde (DAB) in acidic aqueous medium (pH 2) in the presence of anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) to give a yellow colored Schiff's base with a maximum absorbance at 452 nm. Obedience to Beer's law is achieved in the concentration range 0.2–18.0 µg ml-1 (5.6×10-7 - 5.1×10-5 mol l-1), with relative error about 1%, relative standard deviation of less than 0.8% and molar absorptivity 3.02×10-4 l mol-1cm-1. The effect of the presence of some common pharmaceutical additives has been investigated. The developed procedure has been successfully applied to the determination of the drug in pharmaceutical formulations.