A direct electrical method for measuring the velocity of a flowing plasma is based upon the polarization voltage induced when a plasma flows transversely to an applied magnetic field. A method has been developed to allow the estimation of certain background signals and the determination of allowable measurement currents arising from plasma and probe properties. Applications for this technique of ionized gas velocity measurements are indicated.It was found that an ac magnetic field of the order of 5 G would give a sufficient signal to determine the gas velocity of a plasma jet as compared to a dc field of the order of 100 G. Gas stream velocities produced by a low‐power argon plasma jet were found to vary from 1000 to 3000 m/sec depending slightly on the mass flow rate and predominantly on the ambient pressure.