Accurate stopping powers of polyimide have been determined for mean energies (E) in the range of 200 keV≤E≤3200 keV for4He ions and 550 keV≤E≤1550 keV for1H ions, using the transmission method for foils with areal densities of 30–225 &mgr;g/cm2. The overall uncertainties of ∼2% are mainly due to the foil thickness determination. The present data have been parametrized and compared to results obtained by previous authors in the upper energy range and to various parametrizations found in the literature. The best description of the data is given by Bragg’s rule calculations using parametrized elemental stopping powers that were derived from large data sets (deviations <2%). No support is found for the cores‐and‐bonds model showing deviations of 3%–5%, that may be due to the neglect of phase state effects. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.