A wide study of the compounds and procedures mostly used to determine the electro-osmotic flow (EOF) and micelle elution times has been done in seven different micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) systems, These systems are formed from mixtures of an aqueous buffer with the surfactants sodium dodecyl sulfate, lithium dodecyl sulfate, lithium perfluorooctane sulfonate, sodium cholate, sodium deoxycholate, tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide and hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide. The solvation parameter model has been used to evaluate the usefulness of the compounds studied as EOF or micellar markers in each of the seven MEKC systems. It is demonstrated that methanol, acetonitrile and formamide are the best EOF markers, and that dodecanophenone is the best micellar marker.