In the present study, two sensitive, precise and accurate spectrophotometric methods have been developed for the determination of milnacipran in bulk and capsule formulation. The first method is based on the reaction of milnacipran with ninhydrin in N,N'-dimethylformamide medium at 80°C temperature to form a colored Ruhemann's purple, which exhibits absorption maximum at 575nm. The second method is based on extraction of milnacipran into chloroform as ion-pair with bromothymol blue. The yellow colored ion-pair complex exhibits absorption maximum at 410nm. Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration ranges 2.5-37.5μg/mL and 2-12μg/mL of milnacipran for methods I and II, respectively. The effect of experimental variables were investigated and optimized. The validation parameters like linearity, sensitivity, accuracy, precision and robustness were checked by following the ICH guidelines. The proposed methods were applied for the analysis of milnacipran in capsule formulation with good results.