Two simple and selective spectrophotometric methods have been proposed for the determination of gabapentin (GBP) in pure form and in capsules. Both methods are based on the proton transfer from the Lewis acid such as 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (picric acid; PA) or 2,4-dinitrophenol (2,4-DNP) to the primary amino group of GBP which works as Lewis base and formation of yellow ion-pair complexes. The ion-pair complexes formed show absorption maximum at 415 and 420 nm for PA and 2,4-DNP, respectively. Under the optimized experimental conditions, Beer's law is obeyed over the concentration ranges of 1.25-15.0 and 2.0-18.0 μg mL(-1) GBP for PA and 2,4-DNP methods, respectively. The molar absorptivity, Sandell's sensitivity, detection and, quantification limits for both methods are also reported. The proposed methods were applied successfully to the determination of GBP in pure form and commercial capsules. Statistical comparison of the results was performed using Student's t-test and F-ratio at 95% confidence level, and there was no significant difference between the reference and proposed methods with regard to accuracy and precision. Further, the validity of the proposed methods was confirmed by recovery studies via standard addition technique.