Background: transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is an emerging therapy of noninvasive neuromodulation in epilepsy with promising results. Objective: a review was made in the literature on the efficacy and safety of tDCS in epilepsy in animals and humans. Material and methods: We searched for original studies in PubMed, MedLine, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar (1969-2016) using the words “Galvanic stimulation” and “Galvanic stimulation” Epilepsy in animals and humans. Extracted the data and assessed the methodological quality by applying the Cochrane Handbook of Systematic Reviews of Interventions, the PRISMA Guidelines and the Jadad Scale A meta-analysis was not possible because of the methodology, clinical and statistical heterogeneity of the included studies. Results: we analyzed 15 articles with different methodologies (3 in animals and 12 in humans) with a total of 252 stimulated individuals; 109 animals and 143 humans. In vivo and in vitro animal studies showed that direct current estimation can successfully induce suppression of epileptiform activity without neurological lesional effects; 10/12 (83.33%) clinical studies showed an effective decrease in epileptic seizures and 8/12 (66.66%) of inter-ictal epileptiform activity. All patients tolerated tDCS well. Discussion: preliminary studies with tDCS in animals and patients with epilepsy have demonstrated therapeutic efficacy and safety. Conclusion: tDCS is a potentially effective technique for the treatment of epilepsy in animals and patients with epilepsy with minimal adverse effects.