Due to the high toxicity and harmful effects of pesticides on human health, it is necessary to constantly monitor their presence in food and drinking water. The current standard in the determination of pesticides is instrumental analysis, such as chromatography and mass spectrometry. These techniques are expensive, laborious and require use of specialized laboratory equipment and trained personnel. Furthermore, appropriate sample preparation is needed, which significantly increases the overall measurement time. Thus, pesticide detectors based on other principle have become popular over the past few years, especially metallic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). AuNPs based detectors are faster and less expensive than traditional methods. In this review we describe a potential use of AuNPs in the detection of pesticides. Additionally, methods for quantitation of the detector response are illustrated, starting with a direct colorimetric and fluorescence detection, through enzymatic and immunological methods, to Raman spectroscopy and electrochemical techniques.