The methanolic extract of apricots was analyzed for its antioxidant potential and the corresponding total polyphenols following 30 different combinations of four independent variables, viz. methanol, solvent/sample ratio, temperature and time as per the experimental design. The second-order model developed for apricot extract exhibited a non-significant (p < 0.05) value for lack of fit and a low and high value for R2 for antioxidant potential (0.4799) and total polyphenols (0.8057), respectively. The antioxidant potential and total polyphenols in apricots can be brought to the desired level by different combinations using methanol, solvent/sample ratio, time and temperature. Using Response Surface Methodology (RSM), the optimum condition of methanol, solvent/sample ratio, time and temperature was obtained. These optimum conditions were aqueous methanol of 35%, solvent/sample ratio of 15, temperature of 30 °C and extraction time of 30 min, at which the values for antioxidant potential and total polyphenols were 91.16% and 10.702 GAE/g respectively. The optimum processing conditions were a combination of the central composite design followed for the present analysis that shows the validity of the experimental design.