Background: Poor lifestyle choices contribute to the continued growth of chronic illness and disability. Patients with diabetes require continuous self-care choices and management to minimize the short-and long-term impact of the disease. This study aimed at assessing the use of the health belief model to describe self-care practices among patients with diabetes. Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted from February to March 2019 in Gondar City, Northwest Ethiopia. A total of 396 diabetics patients were selected using a systematic random sampling technique. Pretested, structured, and interview administered questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected data were analyzed using STATA 14. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were fitted to identify the factors associated with self-care behavior. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) and p-values <0.05 were used to declare statistical association. Results: Health belief model described 48% of the variance in self-care practices of patients with diabetes. More than half (55.6%) of diabetic patients had good self-care practice. Of the participants, 45.8% and 49.9% had low perceived susceptibility and perceived severity, respectively. The strongest correlation was found between cues to action and perceived severity of health belief model constructs (P<0.001). Formal education, longer duration of diabetes, high social support, high perceived severity, and high self-efficacy contributed to good self-care practices, whereas comorbidities, high perceived benefit, and high perceived barrier were associated with poor self-care practices. Conclusion: Self-care practice of diabetes patients in Gondar City was considerably low. Health professionals need to strengthen delivering tailored health messages on the benefit self-care practices and means of overcoming the potential barriers. Health communication programs are also better to consider for individuals with comorbidities, lack of social support, and lower education.