Microsatellites are valuable molecular markers for evolutionary and ecological studies. Next generation sequencing is responsible for the increasing number of microsatellites for non-model species. Penguins of the Pygoscelis genus are comprised of three species: Adélie (P. adeliae), Chinstrap (P. antarcticus) and Gentoo penguin (P. papua), all distributed around Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic. The species have been affected differently by climate change, and the use of microsatellite markers will be crucial to monitor population dynamics. We characterized a large set of genome-wide microsatellites and evaluated polymorphisms in all three species.