The maintenance of ionic homeostasis in the cytoplasm is an essential and crucial physiological process for all living beings. At cellular level, Na + concentrations are maintained by specialized Na + transporting molecular machines, which operate in the cell or plasma membrane. In eukaryotes Na + transporting P-type ATPase play an important role in Na + homeostasis that is known as Na + /K + -ATPase in animal cells in which K + acts as a counter ion for the exchange of sodium. Na + /K + -ATPase is not found in plants. In plants and fungi, proton gradients are maintained by plasma membrane H + -ATPase while in animal cells Na + and K + gradient is maintained by Na + /K + -ATPase. However, in case of algae, a few reports of Na + /K + -ATPase are available, that maintains optimum concentration gradients in the cytoplasm and is used by Na + /H + antiporter to exchange of Na + and H + ions. The membrane potential derived as a result of ion gradients across the membrane is base for a variety of cellular processes. An active Na + dependent cycle (P-type ATPase) is scarcely reported in algae as compared to marine bacteria/cyanobacteria and animals. The characterization of these transporter gene-encoding membrane transports in seaweed would contribute to the understanding of abiotic stress tolerance in these organisms. This review highlights the detailed account of algal along with animal type Na + -ATPase i.e. occurrence, properties, significance and their recent progress.