Abstract Portable X‐ray fluorescence (PXRF) spectrometry is a proximal sensing technique whereby low‐power X‐rays are used to make elemental determinations in soils. The technique is rapid, portable, and provides multi‐elemental analysis with results generally comparable to traditional laboratory‐based techniques. Elemental data from PXRF can then be either used directly for soil parameter assessment (e.g., total Ca, total Fe) or as a proxy for predicting other soil parameters of interest (e.g., soil cation‐exchange capacity [CEC], soil reaction, soil salinity) via simple or multiple linear regression. Importantly, PXRF does have some limitations that must be considered in the context of soil analysis. Those notwithstanding, PXRF has proven effective in numerous, agronomic, pedological, and environmental quality assessment applications.