Terbinafine hydrochloride is a potent antifungal drug indicated for oral and topical treatment of mycoses. A resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS) method was developed for the determination of terbinafine hydrochloride through a feasible complexation reaction with erythrosine B. In a weakly acidic medium (acetate buffer, pH 5.0), terbinafine hydrochloride can react with erythrosine B through the electrostatic attraction and virtue of hydrophobic force to form an ion-association complex. The reaction resulted in the appearance of a new RRS peak at 369 nm. The RRS peak was increased by increasing the concentration of terbinafine hydrochloride in the linear range of 0.1–1.5 µg ml−1 . All the reaction conditions (erythrosine B concentration, buffer volume, diluting solvent and pH) were optimized. The detection limit was 0.029 µg ml−1 while the quantitation limit was 0.089 µg ml−1 . The suggested method after its validation was successfully applied for the determination of terbinafine hydrochloride in different pharmaceutical formulations (tablets and cream) with sufficient recovery.