The invention relates to a method for mass spectrometric examination of a gas mixture (2), comprising the following method steps: parallel or serial ionization of the gas mixture (2) to be examined by activating of at least two ionization devices (9a, 9b, 9c) operating using different ionization procedures, and/or ionizing of the gas mixture (2) in a detector (10), to which the gas mixture (2) and ions and/or metastable particles (29) of an ionization gas (30), which are produced by an ionization device (9), are fed, and detecting of the ionized gas mixture (2) in the detector (10) for the mass spectrometric examination thereof. The invention also relates to a mass spectrometer (21 ) for mass spectrometric examination of gas mixtures (2), comprising: an ionization unit (22) for ionizing the gas mixture (2), and a detector (10) for detecting the ionized gas mixture (2). The ionization unit (22) comprises at least two ionization devices (9a, 9b, 9c), arranged in parallel or in series, for ionizing the gas mixture (2) by means of different ionization procedures, wherein the ionization devices (9a, 9b, 9c) alternatively can be activated individually or together, and/or the ionization unit (22) has an ionization device (9) configured to feed ions and/or metastable particles (29) of an ionization gas (30) to the detector (10) in order to ionize the gas mixture (2) in the detector (10).