Meso- and macroporous spherical silica gels of pore sizes in the range of 60–1000 Å and 40–75 µm particle size were investigated as a stationary phase for the separation and purification of polysaccharides and poly(ethylene glycols) (PEGs) of various MWs using an aqueous mobile phase. Sephadex and Bio-Gel were used for comparison as the most common stationary phases for similar purposes. The separation of dextrans of a mean MW = 31 kDa from small molecules (NaCl) was possible with SiO2 with a pore size of 60–300 Å, but the observed efficiencies of a column of the same size were lower comparing with Sephadex or Bio-Gel. In the case of oxidized alginic acid only SiO2 of the 60 Å pore size was suitable, while Sephadex, Bio-Gel and other investigated silicas were not efficient. Sephadex and 300–1000 Å SiO2 offered the possibility of dividing dextrans with MW within the range of 1 MDa–10 kDa into fractions of various MWs, while Bio-Gel and 60 Å SiO2 were not suitable. The investigated silica gels strongly adsorbed PEGs of MW 2–20 kDa. The amount adsorbed decreased with the increase of pore size and they were not useful as a stationary phase for this class of polymers. An advantage of SiO2 of the investigated particle size was a very low back pressure comparing with Sephadex. A considerably lower price of silica offers time- and cost-efficient separation of polysaccharides.Graphical Abstract