A highly sensitive, rapid assay method has been developed and validated for the estimation of adenosine in rat plasma with liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry with electro‐spray ionization in the positive‐ion mode. The assay procedure involves extraction of adenosine and phenacetin (internal standard, IS) from rat plasma with a simple protein precipitation extraction process. The method was validated using rat plasma with extinguished adenosine endogenous levels. Chromatographic separation was achieved using a binary gradient using mobile phase A (acetonitrile) and B (0.2% formic acid in water) at a flow rate of 0.50 mL/min on an Atlantis dC18 column with a total run time of 4.0 min. The MS/MS ion transitions monitored were 268 → 136 for adenosine and 180 → 110 for IS. Method validation was performed as per FDA guidelines and the results met the acceptance criteria. The lower limit of quantitation achieved was 0.48 ng/mL and the linearity range extended from 0.48 to 1210 ng/mL. The intra‐ and inter‐day precisions were in the ranges 2.32–12.7 and 4.01–9.40%, respectively. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.