How to Insert a Degree Symbol on Any Device or Platform

The degree symbol (°) is one of those characters that doesn't live on any standard keyboard key — yet it shows up constantly in temperature readings, geographic coordinates, math, and scientific writing. Knowing where to find it depends almost entirely on what device you're using and what you're typing in.

Here's a practical breakdown of every major method, across every major platform.

Why the Degree Symbol Isn't on Your Keyboard

Standard keyboards follow the QWERTY layout, which was designed around the most frequently typed characters in English. Special symbols like °, ©, and ™ didn't make the cut for dedicated keys. Instead, operating systems and applications each handle these characters through their own input methods — which is why the approach on a Mac differs from Windows, which differs again from a smartphone or a web-based tool.

The degree symbol has a Unicode value of U+00B0 and an ASCII code of 248 (in extended ASCII). Those codes are the foundation for most of the insertion methods below.

How to Type a Degree Symbol on Windows

Windows gives you several routes depending on how you prefer to work.

Alt Code method: Hold down the Alt key, type 0176 on the numeric keypad (not the top-row numbers), then release Alt. The ° symbol appears. This only works if your keyboard has a dedicated numeric keypad and Num Lock is on.

Character Map: Open the Start menu, search for Character Map, find the degree symbol, copy it, and paste it wherever you need it. Slow, but reliable when other methods fail.

Copy-paste from a symbol: For one-off uses, simply copying ° from a browser or document and pasting it works in nearly every application.

Word and Outlook autocorrect: Microsoft Word has a built-in shortcut: type 2103 then press Alt+X, and Word converts it to °. This works only inside Word and a handful of other Office apps — not in plain text editors or browsers.

How to Insert a Degree Symbol on Mac

MacOS makes this straightforward.

Keyboard shortcut: Press Option + Shift + 8. This works system-wide — in browsers, text editors, email clients, word processors, and most other apps. It's the fastest method if you're on a Mac.

Character Viewer: Go to Edit → Emoji & Symbols (or press Control + Command + Space) to open the Character Viewer. Search for "degree" and double-click the symbol to insert it at your cursor position.

Typing the Degree Symbol on iPhone and Android 📱

Mobile keyboards handle this differently from desktop OSes.

iPhone (iOS): Tap and hold the 0 (zero) key on the standard keyboard. A small popup appears with the ° symbol as an option. Slide to it and release.

Android: The method varies slightly by keyboard app, but the most common approach is:

• Tap and hold 0 on the number row — many keyboards surface ° this way.
• Alternatively, switch to the symbols keyboard (?123 or #+=), where ° often appears directly.

Third-party keyboards like Gboard and SwiftKey may place the symbol in slightly different locations, so the exact tap path depends on which keyboard app you have installed.

Degree Symbol in Specific Applications

The Difference Between ° and Similar-Looking Symbols

It's worth knowing that a few characters can look like a degree symbol but aren't:

• º — This is the masculine ordinal indicator (U+00BA), used in some languages for ordinal numbers (like "1º"). It looks nearly identical but has a different Unicode value and meaning.
• ˚ — The ring above diacritic (U+02DA), used in linguistics.

Pasting the wrong one into a document, database, or code field can cause display errors or formatting issues — particularly in scientific or technical contexts where the character is parsed programmatically.

Variables That Affect Which Method Works for You

No single method is universal. What works depends on:

• Your device type — desktop keyboard with a numpad vs. laptop without one vs. touchscreen
• Your operating system — Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and ChromeOS each have distinct input methods
• The application you're typing in — a plain text editor, a word processor, a browser form, and a code editor may each respond differently to the same input method
• Your keyboard layout — non-US keyboard layouts sometimes place special characters in different locations or through different modifier combinations
• How often you need it — someone who types temperatures dozens of times a day will want a keyboard shortcut or text expansion tool; someone who needs it once a month might just copy-paste

🔍 Power users who regularly type special characters often set up a text expander — a tool that converts a short trigger phrase (like deg) into ° automatically, regardless of what app they're in. This sidesteps the platform inconsistencies entirely.

When Nothing Works

If you're in a locked-down environment — a corporate device with restricted input settings, a web form that strips special characters, or a legacy application — the fallback is always to copy the symbol directly from a trusted source and paste it. The character itself is universally supported in modern systems; the limitation is usually in the input method, not the destination.

What method actually makes sense for you comes down to your specific device, how often you need the symbol, and what you're working in — and those variables look different for every setup.