Recordings were made from Golgi cells in slices from rat cerebellar cortex using whole-cell and outside-out configurations of the patch-clamp technique. Exogenous glycine and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) both activated chloride currents, which could be differentially blocked by strychnine and SR95531, respectively. Inhibitory synaptic currents occurred spontaneously in all Golgi cells. Some were blocked by strychnine while the others were blocked by SR95531. The single channel events occurring during the decay of these two types of inhibitory postsynaptic currents had different amplitudes, which matched the main conductance states of the channels gated by glycine and GABA in outside-out patches. It was concluded that Golgi cells receive both glycinergic and GABAergic synaptic inputs.