This study points out the similarities between gasification char and activated carbon and reviews its successful applications in the field of adsorption. Since only few data on char from biomass gasification are available in the literature, chars collected from six different commercial gasification plants have been characterized by different techniques. Similarities and differences of the six samples have been pointed out and eventually, three samples have been selected as the most suitable for further applications of char as activated carbon. Characterization results have been compared with data available in the literature and finally, effective examples of char applications as adsorbent have been reported.