In any economy, foreign trade is one of the dynamics for development and growth, especially international trade of high-tech products offers substantial advantages for achieving sustainable growth. The current paper primarily seeks to explore the cruciality of high-tech foreign trade for growth in Türkiye over the 1990–2023 period. For that, the ARDL model is employed, and the findings indicate, both in short-term and long-term, that high-tech exports enhance growth.  In the short-term and long-term, high-tech imports and total foreign trade reduce growth; however, the long-run coefficient (foreign trade) is statistically insignificant. Additionally, control variables, gross fixed capital formation, and government expenditures encourage growth, while foreign direct investments slow down growth. For the robustness checks, FMOLS, DOLS, and CCR estimators are applied. The outcomes obtained by these estimators are consistent with the findings of the ARDL model. Although high-tech exports contribute to growth, high-tech exports' impact remains relatively limited. Therefore, it is essential to enhance high-tech production capacity and implement policies that promote high-tech exports to achieve sustainable economic growth.