Abstract In this review paper we present a theoretical description of the magnetocaloric and barocaloric effects in metallic compounds. The theoretical formulation is separated in two categories namely, [1] systems whose magnetism is due to localized magnetic moments [2] systems whose magnetism is due to itinerant electrons. In both cases we perform systematic analysis of the magnetocaloric and barocaloric quantities in terms of the model parameters. Besides that, an application has been made to the real compounds Tb 5 Si 2 Ge 2 and Mn ( As 0.7 Sb 0.3 ) .