The invention relates to a method for determining a pressure in a vacuum switching tube (1), comprising the steps of: providing the vacuum switching tube, which has a first
electrode (3) and a second
electrode (4), which have a contact state in which the first
electrode and the second electrode are in contact with each other, and a spaced-away state in which the electrodes are spaced apart from each other, and a housing (2) which defines an
interior space (26) in which the electrodes are arranged and which maintains a vacuum in the
interior space, so that in the spaced-away state the electrodes are electrically isolated from each other by the vacuum; applying an
electric field (23) and a
magnetic field (24) to the
interior space, so that a gas
discharge is generated, wherein the orientation of the
electric field in the interior space is different from the orientation of the
magnetic field; measuring a current (I) of the gas
discharge at a plurality of different times (t);Forming a measurement
data set (I(t)) from the currents and the times, wherein the measurement
data set represents the temporal evolution of the current during the gas
discharge; fitting at least a part of the measurement
data set with at least one fitting function (43) which has one or more fitting parameters; inferring the pressure from at least one of the fitting parameters.