In this communication, a reliable group contribution method is developed for estimation of surface tension of ionic liquids. A data set including 920 experimental data for 51 ionic liquids collected from various references is used to develop and assess the predictive capability of the model. The data set covers a temperature range of 268.3 through 743.7 K and a surface tension range of 0.02499 through 0.0647 N m(-1). It employs a total of 19 sub-structures plus temperature to predict the surface tension. To better distinct the effects of anion and cation on the surface tension of ionic liquids, 12 substructures related to chemical structure of anion, and 7 substructures related to the chemical structure of cation were implemented. The results of this method show an average absolute relative deviation (AARD) of 3.6% from experimental data. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.