A simple and accurate method was developed for determining silicon in gasoline using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). For sample inroduction a Burgener nubulizer and a Cyclonic spray chamber were used. A gasoline sample was diluted with isooctane and then introduced into the cooled spray chamber of the ICP-OES. Good linearity was achieved in the silicon concentration range 0.1～10.0 mg·kg-1, and the correlation coefficient was 0.999 96. The detection limit for silicon was 0.012 mg·kg-1 and the silicon recoveries from gasoline samples were 95.8%～98.4%, with relative standard deviations of less than 3.0%. The method was proved to be simple, reliable and highly sensitive, and suitable for determining silicon in samples of motor gasoline, ethanol-gasoline and methanol-gasoline fuel mixtures those containing not more than 15% (V/V) oxygenates.