In the central nervous system, diversity among postsynaptic neurotransmitter receptors can generate diversity in signal transmission properties. We have analyzed the functional properties of glycine receptors in two different populations of retinal interneurons. AII amacrine cells play a crucial role in signal transmission under scotopic conditions and wide-field amacrine cells are thought to play a role in large-scale signal integration across the retina. The patch-clamp technique was used to record spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (spIPSCs) and glycine-evoked patch responses from rat retinal slices. Glycinergic spIPSCs in AII amacrine cells displayed fast kinetics (20–80% rise time ~ 320 ms, decay phase best fit by a double-exponential function, t_fast~ 4.8 ms and t_slow~ 33 ms). Glycinergic spIPSCs in wide-field amacrine cells displayed a similar rise time (~ 340 ms), but in contrast to the AIIs, displayed a much slower decay (t_fast~ 15 ms and t_slow~ 57 ms). The different kinetics of the spIPSCs were paralleled by similar differences in kinetics of responses evoked by ultra-fast application of glycine to outside-out patches from each cell type. Non-stationary noise analysis and directly observed single-channel gating revealed different unitary conductances involved in each cell type. Together, the results suggest that the glycinergic responses in AII amacrine cells are dominated by a1b heteromers, with a contribution from a1 homomers, whereas the responses in wide-field amacrine cells are dominated by a2b heteromers. The unique kinetic properties of these postsynaptic receptors are likely to mediate distinct integrative properties of these retinal interneurons.