Ehrlich ascites cells were preincubated in hypotonic medium with subsequent restoration of tonicity. After the initial osmotic shrinkage the cells recovered their volume within 5 min with an associated KCl uptake. The volume recovery was inhibited when NO-3 was substituted for Cl-, and when Na+ was replaced by K+, or by choline (at 5 mM external K+). The volume recovery was strongly inhibited by furosemide and bumetanide, but essentially unaffected by DIDS. The net uptake of Cl- was much larger than the value predicted from the conductive Cl- permeability. The undirectional 36Cl flux, which was insensitive to bumetanide under steady-state conditions, was substantially increased during regulatory volume increase, and showed a large bumetanide-sensitive component. During volume recovery the Cl- flux ratio (influx/efflux) for the bumetanide-sensitive component was estimated at 1.85, compatible with a coupled uptake of Na+ and Cl-, or with an uptake via a K+,Na+,2Cl- cotransport system. The latter possibility is unlikely, however, because a net uptake of KCl was found even at low external K+, and because no K+ uptake was found in ouabain-poisoned cells. In the presence of ouabain a bumetanide-sensitive uptake during volume recovery of Na+ and Cl- in nearly equimolar amounts was demonstrated. It is proposed that the primary process during the regulatory volume increase is an activation of an otherwise quiescent, bumetanide-sensitive Na+,Cl- cotransport system with subsequent replacement of Na+ by K+ via the Na+/K+ pump, stimulated by the Na+ influx through the Na+,Cl- cotransport system.