Abstract: The invention concerns a method and a device for descaling a metal strip (1), especially a hot-rolled strip of normal steel or a hot-rolled or cold-rolled strip of austenitic or ferritic stainless steel, in which the metal strip (1) is guided in a direction of conveyance (R) through at least one plasma descaling unit (2, 3) in which it is subjected to a plasma descaling. The objective of the invention is to improve the production of this type of metal strip. To this end, the metal strip (1) is subjected to an automatically controlled cooling process in a cooling unit (4, 5) following the plasma descaling in the one or more plasma descaling units (2, 3) in such a way that it has a well-defined temperature downstream of the cooling unit (4, 5). The invention also concerns a method in which the strip is coated with a coating metal after the plasma descaling operation and in which the heating of the strip caused by the plasma descaling operation is utilized in the coating operation.