In this paper the limitations and perspectives of a simple remanent field technique for the determination of the critical current density (jc) in high‐temperature superconductor (HTSC) thin films and in HTSC thin‐film multilayers at 77 K were examined. As the comparison with resistivejcmeasurements on microbridges shows,jcvalues down to 104A/cm2can easily be measured with high accuracy. The method is nondestructive, fast, and inexpensive. It is especially suitable forjcmeasurements of double‐sided coated substrates, where the determination of the individualjcvalues of both thin‐film layers is possible.