How to Type the Degree Symbol on Any Device

The degree symbol (°) is one of those characters that's obvious when you need it and surprisingly tricky to find. Whether you're typing a temperature, noting an angle, or writing about geographic coordinates, knowing where it hides across different devices and operating systems saves real frustration.

What the Degree Symbol Actually Is

The degree symbol isn't a letter or a standard punctuation mark — it's a special character with its own Unicode value (U+00B0). That means it lives outside the keys printed on your keyboard, and how you access it depends entirely on your operating system, device type, and even the software you're using.

It's worth distinguishing it from two look-alikes:

• ° — the true degree symbol
• º — the masculine ordinal indicator (looks similar, used differently in Spanish/Portuguese)
• ˢ — a superscript letter, not a symbol at all

Most contexts — temperature, angles, coordinates — expect the true degree symbol.

Typing the Degree Symbol on Windows

Windows gives you several routes depending on how you're comfortable working.

Using Alt Codes (Numeric Keypad Required)

Hold Alt and type 0176 on the numeric keypad (not the number row at the top), then release Alt. The ° symbol appears. This only works if:

• Num Lock is on
• You're using a physical numeric keypad

Laptops without a dedicated numpad often can't use this method reliably without enabling a software workaround.

Using the Character Map

Search for "Character Map" in the Start menu, find the degree symbol, and copy it. Useful once — less practical for repeated use.

Using Copy-Paste or AutoCorrect

Many Windows users simply type the symbol once, copy it, and paste it wherever needed. Alternatively, Word and Outlook let you set up AutoCorrect shortcuts — so typing something like deg can auto-expand to °.

Using the Emoji and Symbol Panel

Press Windows key + . (period) to open the emoji panel. Switch to the symbols section and search for "degree." This works across most modern Windows 10 and 11 applications.

Typing the Degree Symbol on macOS

Mac makes this more straightforward.

Keyboard Shortcut

Press Option + Shift + 8. That's the fastest route on any Mac keyboard and works system-wide in virtually any text field.

Character Viewer

Go to Edit > Emoji & Symbols in most apps, or press Control + Command + Space. Search "degree" and click to insert.

Typing the Degree Symbol on iPhone and iPad 📱

There's no dedicated key, but it's built into the keyboard:

1. Tap and hold the zero (0) key
2. A popup appears with the ° symbol
3. Slide your finger to it and release

This works in the default iOS/iPadOS keyboard across all apps. Third-party keyboards may handle this differently.

Typing the Degree Symbol on Android

The approach varies slightly by device manufacturer and keyboard app, but the most common path:

1. Open your keyboard and switch to the numeric/symbol view (usually the ?123 key)
2. Look for the degree symbol directly, or long-press the 0 key — many Android keyboards surface it that way
3. On some keyboards, it appears in a secondary symbols panel

Keyboard apps like Gboard and SwiftKey each have slightly different layouts, so the exact tap sequence depends on which one you're using.

Typing the Degree Symbol in Specific Software

In coding environments or markup languages, you'll rarely type the raw symbol — using the correct entity or escape sequence keeps your files clean and encoding-safe.

The Variables That Change Your Experience 🖥️

What makes this more complicated than it should be comes down to a few factors:

Keyboard type and layout. A full desktop keyboard with a numpad opens up Alt code methods that simply don't exist on a compact laptop keyboard without extra steps.

Operating system. Windows and macOS have completely different shortcuts, and neither maps directly to mobile.

The app you're working in. A rich text editor, a plain text field, a terminal, and a spreadsheet all behave differently. Some respect keyboard shortcuts; some strip special characters; some have their own symbol insert tools.

Keyboard app on mobile. Android especially varies — Gboard, Samsung Keyboard, and SwiftKey each organize symbols differently, and some make the degree symbol more accessible than others.

Input method. If you use voice-to-text, dictating "degree symbol" sometimes works in modern assistants, but results are inconsistent across platforms and languages.

When Unicode Entry Is the Most Reliable Option

For technical users working across multiple platforms or inside code, typing the Unicode code point directly is often the most consistent method:

• On Windows (in some apps): type 00B0, then press Alt+X
• On Linux: Ctrl+Shift+U, then 00b0, then Enter
• In HTML/XML: ° or °

These methods bypass keyboard layout differences entirely, which matters if you're working in environments where shortcuts conflict or don't apply.

The right method for typing ° ultimately depends on what device you're on, what keyboard you're using, and what application you're typing into. Someone writing a quick text message has a different path than someone building a spreadsheet or writing a web page — and even within those scenarios, the specific OS version and keyboard configuration shape what's actually fastest.