A simple and reproducible spectrophotometeric method for the assay of cefotaxime sodium, cefuroxime sodium, and ceftriaxone disodium with metol-chromium(VI) reagent has been developed. The procedure is based on direct oxidation of metol by potassium dichromate in presence of drug in acidic medium and subsequent formation of ternary complex. Beer's law is obeyed in the range 0.2-28 microg ml(-1) at lambdamax 520 nm. For more accurate analysis, Ringbom optimum concentration range is found to be 0.8-26.5 microg ml(-1). The molar absorptivity and Sandell sensitivity were calculated. Six replicate analysis of solutions containing seven different concentrations of the examined drugs were carried out and gave a mean correlation coefficient < or =0.9996; the factors of the regression line equation for the three cephalosporins were calculated. The proposed method was applied to the determination of the examined drugs in pharmaceutical formulations and the results demonstrated that the method is equally accurate, precise, and reproducible as the official methods.