Background HIV counselling affirms that people exercise their right to known their HIV status and open the gateway to care, treatment, and support for a person in need. Existing evidence shows that its counselling and testing uptake among sexually active males in Ethiopia is too low and hence this study aims to determine the status of uptake and identify its determinants. Method Data on 12, 688 sexually active men was extracted from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey. Multilevel logistic regression was fitted to identify the factors associated with the uptake. Result This study depicted that the overall voluntary counseling and testing of HIV uptake among sexually active men in Ethiopia was 45.69%; 95% CI [43.08%, 48.33%]. Results showed that about 13% of the variation in the likelihood of being tested for HIV was due to the variation among the regions. Moreover, age, religion, education, occupational, marital status, HIV knowledge, health insurance, wealth status, risky sexual behavior, discussion about family planning with health workers, owning of mobile, frequency of watching television and listening to the radio were significant factors. Conclusion Voluntary counseling and testing uptake among sexually active men in Ethiopia is low and varies across the regions. The level of HIV knowledge, having risky sexual behavior, health insurance, and media were some of the significant factors. Therefore, giving due consideration to these factors worth boosting voluntary HIV counseling and testing uptake, which is an integral component of the strategies to efficiently prevent and control the disease.