Summary: The Balaban index of a connected graph \(G\) is defined as \[ J(G)=\frac{|E(G)|}{\mu +1}\sum_{e=uv\in E(G)}\frac{1}{{^{\sqrt{D_{G}(u)D_{G}(v)}}}}, \] and the sum-Balaban index is defined as \[ SJ(G)=\frac{|E(G)|}{\mu+1}\sum_{e=uv\in E(G)}\frac{1}{{^{\sqrt{D_{G}(u) D_{G}(v)}}}}, \] where \(D_{G}(u)=\sum_{w\in V(G)}d_{G}(u, w), \) and \(\mu\) is the cyclomatic number of \(G\). In this paper, the unicyclic graphs with the maximum Balaban index and the maximum sum-Balaban index among all unicyclic graphs on \(n\) vertices are characterized respectively.