Residual kidney function is a major prognosis factor in patients with end-stage renal disease under hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis. Advances in later years promoted residual kidney function protection as an adequacy target and the advocacy of incremental dialysis, utilizing its assessment as a parameter of individualized dialysis schedules. Glomerular filtration rate measurement is only a dimension of kidney function neglecting the share of tubular function, with several dialytic limitations. The need for interdialytic urine collections to quantify residual kidney function, by the mean of urea and creatinine clearances, is cumbersome and prone to errors in dialysis patients. This review will approach residual kidney function estimation without urine collection, mainly with biomarkers such as cystatin C, beta-2 microglobulin, and beta-trace protein, as well as the behavior of these molecules on various dialysis modalities, their non-renal determinants, and its potential use for patient risk stratification. Multi-frequency bioimpedance analysis is also described as a promising approach to estimate residual kidney function, being an opportunity to highlight the relevant link between volume balance and diuresis. We conclude that standard glomerular filtration rate estimation formulas are not sufficiently accurate for residual kidney function assessment. There is a need for innovative tools that consider glomerular and interstitial function to be implement in clinical practice, therefore the new equations already developed and approached in this review should be validated in larger cohorts. Keywords Residual kidney function. Dialysis. Peritoneal dialysis. Cystatin C. Beta-trace protein. Beta-2 microglobulin Residual Kidney Function Is More than Glomerular Filtration Rate Urine output is variable throughout the ESRD spectrum, ranging from normal levels to anuria; it is determined not only by glomerular filtration rate (GFR) but also by the rate of tubular reabsorption. This RKF has an importance that is disproportionately high relative to its measured value in uremic solute removal. The removal of slowly diffusing intracellular uremic compounds is dialysis treatment time dependent; however, This article is part of the Topical Collection on Medicine * Inês Castro