The present work was performed in order to study the mechanism of micellar thin layer chromatography (MTLC) and to develop a new simple and sensitive simultaneous MTLC method for separation of empagliflozin, Linagliptin and metformin hydrochloride ternary mixture. The study was done using three different surfactants; sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), benzalkonium chloride (BAC) and polysorbate 80 (tween 80). Chromatographic procedure was performed using micellar mobile phase that composed of aqueous solution of each surfactant and methanol (6: 4 v/v) and micellar TLC determination at λ_max 237 nm. Separation using SDS (anionic surfactant) and BAC (cationic surfactant) depends on ionization potential (AMI-IP), partition coefficient (logP (o/w)) and hydrogen bond donor atoms (a-don), whereas separation using tween 80 depends mainly on the lipophilicity (R_M0), solvation energy (E-sol) and Van der Waals energy (E-vdw). Quantitative structure–retention relationships study was carried out, modeled, evaluated and validated using molecular operating environment software.