This paper proposes a novel and simple expression for effective radius of annular-ring microstrip antennas (ARMAs) obtained using a recently emerged optimization algorithm of artificial bee colony (ABC) in calculating the resonant frequency at dominant mode (TM11). A total of 80 ARMAs having different parameters related to antenna dimensions and dielectric constants was simulated in terms of the resonant frequency with the help of an electromagnetic simulation software called IE3D™ based on method of moment. The effective radius expression was constructed and the unknown coefficients belonging to the expression were then optimally determined with the use of ABC algorithm. The proposed expression was verified through comparisons with the methods of resonant frequency calculation reported elsewhere. Also, it was further validated on an ARMA fabricated in this study. The superiority of the presented approach over the other methods proposed in the literature is that it does not need any sophisticated computations while achieving the most accurate results in the resonant frequency calculation of ARMAs.