How to Make a Degree Sign on a Mac: Every Method Explained

Typing a degree symbol (°) on a Mac is one of those small tasks that trips people up the first time — and then becomes second nature once you know where it lives. Unlike a period or comma, the degree sign isn't printed on any key, but macOS gives you several ways to insert it depending on how you work.

The Fastest Method: Keyboard Shortcut

The quickest way to type a degree sign on a Mac is with this key combination:

Option + Shift + 8

Press all three keys at once and the ° symbol appears wherever your cursor is sitting — in a document, email, spreadsheet, or text field. This works in virtually every native macOS app and most third-party applications.

This shortcut works because macOS assigns hidden characters to Option and Option + Shift key combinations across the keyboard. The degree symbol is one of dozens of special characters accessible this way without any additional setup.

Using the Character Viewer

If you don't want to memorize a shortcut, macOS includes a built-in Character Viewer — a searchable panel of every symbol, emoji, and special character available on the system.

To open it:

1. Click into any text field where you want the symbol
2. Press Control + Command + Spacebar
3. In the search box, type degree
4. Double-click the ° symbol to insert it

You can also access the Character Viewer through the menu bar. Go to Apple menu → System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS) → Keyboard, then enable "Show Input menu in menu bar." Once active, a small icon appears in the menu bar that lets you open the Character Viewer from anywhere.

The Character Viewer is particularly useful when you need less common variants — like the degree Celsius (℃) or degree Fahrenheit (℉) symbols, which appear as single combined characters.

Typing It Through the Emoji & Symbols Menu

In many Mac apps — particularly Pages, TextEdit, Word, and most writing tools — you can access symbols directly from the app's menu:

• Go to Edit → Emoji & Symbols
• Search for degree
• Click to insert

This routes to the same Character Viewer panel described above, just accessed from a different entry point.

The Touch Bar (Older MacBook Pros)

MacBook Pro models released between 2016 and 2021 included a Touch Bar — a narrow OLED strip above the keyboard that displayed context-sensitive controls. When typing in certain apps, the Touch Bar sometimes surfaced special character suggestions. However, this was inconsistent and app-dependent, making it less reliable than the keyboard shortcut or Character Viewer.

Apple removed the Touch Bar starting with the 2021 MacBook Pro redesign, so this option is irrelevant on current hardware.

Copy and Paste (The Low-Tech Fallback)

If you only need the degree symbol occasionally and don't want to remember a shortcut, copying and pasting from a reliable source works fine. You can:

• Copy it directly from this article: °
• Search "degree symbol" in any browser and copy from the results
• Keep a text snippet saved in Notes or a snippet manager app

Some users build a library of special characters in a notes file precisely for this reason.

🖥️ Does the Method Change by macOS Version?

The Option + Shift + 8 shortcut has been consistent across macOS for many years and works on current versions including Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia. The Character Viewer has been part of macOS for over a decade, though its interface has been refreshed across versions.

One variable worth noting: third-party keyboard remapping apps (like Karabiner-Elements) can reassign Option-key combinations, which could interfere with the default shortcut if you've customized your keyboard layout. If Option + Shift + 8 isn't working, that's worth checking.

When You Need the Symbol Repeatedly 🔢

Users who type temperatures, angles, or coordinates regularly — in scientific writing, engineering documents, or geographic work — often find it worth setting up a text replacement rule:

1. Open System Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacements
2. Add a shortcut like deg or ^o that automatically expands to °

Once saved, typing your chosen trigger in any app that respects macOS text replacement (Pages, Mail, Notes, and most native apps) will auto-substitute the degree symbol.

This doesn't work in every application — notably, some coding editors and web-based tools bypass system-level text replacement entirely.

Comparing Your Options at a Glance

What Actually Determines Which Method Works Best for You

The "right" method shifts based on how often you need the symbol, which apps you spend time in, and whether you've made any keyboard customizations. A casual user sending occasional emails has very different needs than someone writing technical documentation daily in a mix of native and web-based tools. The shortcut is universally fast, but text replacement pays off at higher frequency — and neither works identically across every app environment on every macOS setup. °