Nucleophilic aliphatic substitution reactions constitute important steps in the synthesis of substances with biological activity and industrial appeal, beyond to participating in steps in biosynthetic routes of natural products. Unimolecular (SN1) and bimolecular (SN2) pathways can be understood as limiting cases of a mechanistic continuum. In between them, borderline mechanisms are proposed. The preference for one path over another depends on several factors, such as the structure of the substrate, the nucleophile and the solvent used. This plurality is still a topic of discussion and needs further understanding. In this context, the present work aims to rationalize the preferential reaction pathway for nucleophilic aliphatic substitutions, whose substrates do not fit only in the uni- and bimolecular models, by identifying lower energy reaction pathways due to the structural and electronic characteristics. The evaluation was carried out by molecular modeling at the Density Functional Theory (DFT) level, simulating substrates with the nucleofuge (Cl and NH3 + ) connected to secondary carbon atoms, with the computational method M06-2X/aug-cc-pVTZ, previously validated according to geometrical and energetic parameters. Besides, we checked the effect of a polar solvent with high dielectric constant in the reaction pathways. The analyzed substrates demonstrated preference for the bimolecular mechanism and the influence of a solvent in these reactions was evident.