SummaryA common drawback of propofol is pain on injection and lidocaine is commonly mixed with propofol to reduce its incidence and severity. We conducted a randomised, prospective, double‐blind study to compare injection pain following the administration of two different formulations of propofol in 200 unpremedicated ASA I–III adult patients scheduled for elective surgery under general anaesthesia. Patients were allocated randomly into two groups to receive either Propofol‐®Lipuro without added lidocaine or Diprivan® mixed with lidocaine 10 mg. Five ml of the study solution was injected at a constant rate over 15 s and patients graded any associated pain or discomfort using a four‐point verbal rating scale. The incidence of propofol injection pain was virtually identical in both study groups with 37/98 (38%) patients experiencing pain or discomfort following Propofol‐®Lipuro compared with 35/98 (36%) after Diprivan® (p = 0.88). We observed no significant difference in pain scores between the groups (p = 0.67). Moderate or severe injection pain was experienced by 12/98 (12%) patients given Propofol‐®Lipuro compared with 8/98 (8%) given Diprivan® (p = 0.48).