Recent advances in gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) (ionization sources at atmospheric pressure, fast GC, GCxGC, high resolution mass spectrometry, etc.) have significantly improved the capabilities of this technique, traditionally used to determine pesticides. Although liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is nowadays preferred, pyrethroids and organochlorine pesticides are more sensitive by GC-MS and a significant number of other pesticides work well by both techniques. Here, we critically review the development, instrumentation, approaches and applications of GC-MS, focusing on the analysis of pesticide residues published between 2000 and 2019 along with outstanding pioneer contributions, with special emphasis on those published after 2010. This review attempts to fill a void of information on the state-of-art of GC-MS for pesticide residue determination, describing the pros and cons of the different approaches, and the main applications. •New advances in GC-MS focus on pesticide residue determination.•Improving separation speed by fast GC and resolving power by GC x GC.•High sensitive APCI ionization for labile pesticides and further MS/MS.•Improved identification for metabolites, unexpected or unknowns by HRMS.•Challenges and future perspectives of GC-MS in pesticide determination are addressed.