Argides, dimers, and doubly charged metal ions were investigated as possible species to use for elemental quantification in glow discharge mass spectrometry. These species showed a behavior similar to that of the metal ion when discharge power was varied, and similar to that of the metal atom when discharge pressure was varied. Quantification of several National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standard reference samples was shown to be feasible using species with concentrations as low as a few parts per million in the gas phase. These species provided good quantification (better than 15% in most cases) for elements with concentrations of 0.1%, and above, in the sample. The practical utility of this analytical scheme was evaluated by analyzing a standard as an unknown surrogate. Relative errors of approximately 50% for the M + analyte, due to a plethora of polyatomic interferences, were reduced to errors of approximately 15% when the MAr + , M + 2 and M 2 + were used for quantification.