OBJECTIVE To establish a pre-column derivation capillary gas chromatog. method for the determination of solvent of formic acid in ceftazidime pentahydrate bulk drug. METHODS The determination was performed on a DB-WAX capillary column. The injection port and detector temperature were 200 °C and 250 °C, resp. The flow rate was 0.6 mL/L when the column temperature was 40 °C. The carrier gas was nitrogen. RESULTS The liner range for formic acid was 0.0339-0.1017 mg/mL (r= 0.9997). The average recoveries were 98.8% (RSD = 0.9%). The limit of detection and limit of quantification were 4.7 μg/mL and 15.7 μg/mL, resp. CONCLUSION The method is easy to operate and has a good accuracy. It can be used for determination of residual solvent of formic acid in ceftazidime pentahydrate bulk drug.