OBJECTIVES Migraine is one of the most common diseases in the world. The purpose of this study is to investigate the economic burden of migraine in Turkey by evaluating it in terms of direct and indirect costs. METHODS For determining the migraine economic burden, Cost of Illness methodology is used. After calculating direct and indirect costs, weight in frequency, determining the annual costs per patient, total cost is reached based on prevalence. An expert panel has been organized for the use of health resources. For the direct costs, patients' applications to hospital yearly, laboratory/imaging tests implemented during application, hospitalizations and treatments, medicines, side effects and complications are evaluated. Indirect costs are calculated that belong to patient such as productivity loss. In addition, transportation costs and out of pocket payment are considered in indirect cost calculation. RESULTS The prevalence of migraine is estimated as 16.4% in Turkey. Annually direct cost of treatment of migraine per patient is $446.58. Annually indirect cost of migraine per patient is $202.5 and total cost is $649.1. Considering total number of migraine patients as 13,119,198 and half of them get diagnosed, total direct cost is determined as $2,929,414,796.44 from the payer perspective. According to the expert panel opinion, approximately 34.0% of patients got sick days report as 30 days in a year, all patients lost their work times for treatment in hospital as 8 days in a year and 7.5% traveled to other cities for treatment. Hence, total indirect cost including non-medical direct cost is calculated as $1,328,292,600.27 resulting in a total migraine cost for Turkey as $4,257,707,396.71, including direct costs. CONCLUSIONS Migraine is an important economic burden for Turkey. These data demonstrate the importance of the individual and societal impact of migraine and illustrate the need for improved strategies to target effective migraine treatment.