A nano gas pump for generating gas flow, gas compression and gas rarefication is disclosed, which provides up to several orders of magnitude pressure difference, operates over a wide range of pressure from several millitorr to several atmospheres, and with pumping speeds from several nano liters to several liters per minute. The nano gas pump does not require any moving parts and generate gas flow using steep temperature gradients of more than 100 milli Kelvin over a mean free path of the local gas in the direction of the gas flow. Temperature gradients are created and restricted mostly to the gas doing the work, through an arrangement of PNP, NPN, PP, NN thermoelectric segments together with conductive interconnects. Contact resistance which drastically reduces the efficiency of a nanoscale thermoelectric heat pump is mitigated by overlapping thermoelectric segments and electric connections. Several exemplary embodiments are described based on linear (straight) and non-linear (turn) gas flow paths. Various staging configurations are also described.