Generalized sedimentation models have been developed from a review of more than sixty recent papers on modern and ancient braided-stream deposits. Braided rivers consist of a series of broad, shallow channels and bars, with elevated areas active only during floods, and dry islands. There are three main bar types; longitudinal, comprising crudely bedded gravel sheets; transverse to linguoid, consisting of sand or gravel and formed by downstream avalanche-face progradation; and point or side bars, formed by bedform coalescence and chute and swale development in areas of low energy. Important sediment-forming processes include bar formation, channel-floor dune migration, low-water accretion and overbank sedimentation. Braided-stream deposits consist of up to three gravel facies, five sand facies and two fine-grained facies. Vertical sequences recorded in modern and ancient deposits are of several types: flood-, channel fill-, valley fill-, channel re-occupation- and point bar-cycles. Some of these fine upward and could be confused with meandering-river sequences. Facies assemblages and vertical sequences fall into four main classes, which are proposed as sedimentation models for the interpretation of ancient braided-river deposits in the surface and subsurface: (1) Scott type: consists mainly of longitudinal bar gravels with sand lenses formed by infill of channels and scour hollows during low water. (2) Donjek type: may be dominated by sand or gravel; distinguished by fining-upward cycles caused by lateral point-bar accretion or vertical channel aggradation. Cycles commonly are less than 3 m thick, but cycles up to 60 m may be present, representing valley-fill sequences. Longitudinal and linguoid-bar deposits, channel-floor dune deposits, bar-top and overbank deposits all may be important. (3) Platte type: characterized by an abundance of linguoid bar and dune deposits (planar and trough crossbedding). No well-developed cyclicity, probably owing to a lack of topographic differentiation in the river (no evidence of deep, primary channels, abandoned areas or overbank areas). (4) Bijou Creek type: consists of horizontally laminated sand plus subordinate amounts of sand showing planar crossbedding and ripple marks. Formed during flash floods and may be most typical of ephemeral streams.