OBJECTIVES: Diabetes mellitus (DM) represents a challenging problem to healthcare systems globally as it requires a high level of expenditure. In Algeria, nearly US$264 million was spent on DM in 2010; this is expected to rise to US$461 million by 2030. The aim of this study was to collect 2011 direct medical costs of the management and treatment of DM-related complications from the Algerian Social Insurance perspective. METHODS: A structured literature search was conducted to search for the published costs of interest but no relevant publications were identified. Consequently, IMS collected the required costs from official sources identified using its local resources.  Six groups of costs were created based mainly on type of complications: management costs, cardiovascular complications, renal complications, acute events, eye-disease and neuropathy/foot ulcers which were presented as first-year costs and costs in subsequent years following an event in 2011 US-dollars (1 US$=72.868 AD). RESULTS: The highest first year costs were observed in the renal complications group; renal transplantation (US$28,422), continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (US$3,901) and haemodialysis (US$3,742). High annual costs were also associated with the treatment of cardiovascular complications, ranging from US$865 for first-year treatment of myocardial infarction to US$132 for first-year treatment of peripheral vascular disease. Other first-year costs of treating cardiovascular events were: stroke (US$282), congestive heart failure (US$244), and angina (US$395). The cost of an amputation procedure was US$533, excluding the cost of prosthesis (US$618), with a follow-up cost of US$22. The cost of a laser eye procedure was US$48, while the cost of a cataract operation was US$123. CONCLUSIONS: The study identified the Social Insurance costs related to treating DM complications which may add to the financial burden on the Algerian health care system. Data from this study may be used further to evaluate the economic impact of DM-related treatments in Algeria.