Relative energies were calculated at different semi‐empirical (CNDO, INDO, MINDO/3, MNDO, AM1, and PM3) and ab initio levels (RHF/STO‐3G//STO‐3G, RHF/STO‐4G//STO‐4G, RHF/3‐21G//3‐21G, RHF/6‐31G//6‐31G, RHF/6‐31G*//6‐31G, RHF/6‐31G*//6‐31G*, RHF/6‐31 ++ G**//6‐31G*, RHF/6‐311 ++ G**/6‐31G*, RHF/6‐31G**//6‐31G**, RHF/31 ++ G**//6‐31 ++ G**, MP2/6‐31G*//6‐31G* and MP2/6‐31G**//6‐31G**) for so‐called ‘essential’ (trans) and ‘scorpio’ (gauche) conformations of the neutral and monoprotonated histamine tautomers. For the monocationic forms, the polarizable continuous model was applied to geometries optimized at the RHF/6‐31G* level. The comparison shows that, generally, both types of calculation (semi‐empirical and ab initio) predict the same tautomeric preference for the conformations of histamine and its monoprotonated cation when not interacting with the environment, i.e. for conditions corresponding to the gas phase. For the monocation, the ring N‐aza protonated form (ImH+) is favoured in the gas phase for both conformations (trans and gauche); this is contrary to water solution, where the chain N‐amino (AmH+‐T1) predominates. This difference results mainly from the high polarizability of the imidazole ring in the gas phase which is strongly reduced in solution. Some ‘discrepancies’ are only observed for neutral histamine, for which the relative energy is close to zero. Good agreement of results predicted by various methods can result from the fact that in histamine the proton is transferred between atoms of the same element (nitrogen). Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.