We determine the minimal number of separating invariants for the invariant ring of a matrix group G ≤ GL n ( F q ) over the finite field F q . We show that this minimal number can be obtained with invariants of degree at most | G | n ( q − 1 ) . In the non-modular case this construction can be improved to give invariants of degree at most n ( q − 1 ) . As examples we study separating invariants over the field F 2 for two important representations of the symmetric group .