A simple, sensitive, accurate and affordable spectrofluorimetric method was developed and validated for the determination of venlafaxine, both in marketed preparations as well as in spiked rat plasma. Venlafaxine depicted strong native fluorescence property in freshly prepared 0.05 M sulphuric acid. The excitation and emission wavelengths were found to be 237.0 nm and 301.0 respectively. Effect of variations in pH, temperature, concentration, change in molarities of different solvents, and effect of excipients were studied. The calibration graph in case of dosage forms and in spiked plasma was found to be rectilinear in the concentrations of 15–600 ng/ml and 20–650 ng/ml respectively. The intra- day and inter-day accuracy measurements of VEN in formulations ranged from 0.29 to 0.44% and 0.27 to 0.49%, respectively. The intra-day and inter-day accuracy in measurement of VEN in plasma ranged from 0.062 to 2.26% and 0.52 to 2.32%, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) was found to be 6.0 ng/mL and 4.0 ng/mL in plasma and formulations respectively. The mean recovery of VEN from plasma was 97.46.