How to Type the Degree Symbol on Mac: Every Method Explained

Whether you're writing about temperature, angles, or coordinates, knowing how to type the degree symbol (°) on a Mac saves you from copy-pasting it every time. macOS gives you several ways to insert it, and the right one depends on how often you need it and what app you're working in.

The Fastest Method: Keyboard Shortcut

The quickest way to type a degree symbol on any Mac is with a single keyboard shortcut:

Option + Shift + 8

Press all three keys at once and the ° symbol appears immediately. This works in virtually every macOS app — Pages, Word, TextEdit, Notes, Mail, Safari address bars, and most text fields system-wide.

This shortcut is built into macOS at the system level, so it doesn't require any setup, special software, or configuration changes.

Using the Character Viewer

If you don't type the degree symbol often enough to memorize a shortcut, macOS includes a Character Viewer — a searchable library of every symbol, emoji, and special character available on your system.

To open it:

1. Click any text field where you want to insert the symbol
2. Press Control + Command + Space — a small emoji and symbol picker appears
3. In the search bar, type degree
4. The ° symbol appears in the results — double-click it to insert

You can also access a larger version of the Character Viewer through the menu bar. Go to System Settings → Keyboard and enable "Show Input menu in menu bar." This adds a small icon to your menu bar that opens the full Character Viewer with categorized symbol browsing.

Typing the Degree Symbol in Specific Apps

Pages, Word, and Google Docs

Option + Shift + 8 works reliably in all three. In Pages and Word, autocorrect won't interfere with this shortcut. In Google Docs (browser-based), the shortcut still works but the behavior can occasionally vary depending on your browser and system configuration.

TextEdit

The keyboard shortcut works here without any issues. TextEdit also supports the Character Viewer via the Edit menu → Emoji & Symbols.

Terminal and Code Editors

🖥️ If you're working in Terminal or a code editor like VS Code, the degree symbol inserts as a UTF-8 character (Unicode U+00B0). Most modern code editors handle this without problems, but be aware that some legacy systems, file formats, or command-line tools may not render non-ASCII characters correctly. In those contexts, you might need a workaround like a Unicode escape sequence instead.

Creating a Text Replacement Shortcut

If you type degree symbols frequently, macOS lets you set up a text replacement so you can type a short abbreviation that automatically expands into °.

To set this up:

1. Open System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS versions)
2. Go to Keyboard → Text Replacements
3. Click the + button
4. In the Replace field, type something like deg or *deg
5. In the With field, paste or type °
6. Click Add

Now whenever you type your chosen abbreviation followed by a space, macOS replaces it with °. This sync across iCloud-connected Apple devices, so the same replacement appears on your iPhone and iPad as well.

Comparing the Methods

A Note on Similar-Looking Symbols

Not all degree-like symbols are the same. Three characters often get confused:

• ° — Degree sign (U+00B0) — used for temperature, angles, coordinates
• º — Masculine ordinal indicator (U+00BA) — looks similar but is used in Spanish/Portuguese text
• ˚ — Ring above (U+02DA) — a diacritic mark used in linguistics

Option + Shift + 8 specifically produces the proper degree sign (U+00B0). If you're copying symbols from other sources, it's worth double-checking which character you actually have — they can look nearly identical on screen but cause formatting or encoding issues in technical documents.

Factors That Affect Which Method Works Best

While the keyboard shortcut works for most people in most situations, a few variables shift which approach makes the most sense:

• How often you use the symbol — occasional users are fine with the shortcut or Character Viewer; frequent users benefit from a text replacement
• What apps you work in — browser-based tools, terminal emulators, and specialized software sometimes handle keyboard shortcuts differently than native macOS apps
• Whether you use multiple Apple devices — text replacements sync via iCloud, making them more valuable if you write across Mac, iPhone, and iPad
• macOS version — the shortcut works the same across modern macOS versions, but the location of settings (System Preferences vs. System Settings) changed with macOS Ventura

The keyboard shortcut alone handles the vast majority of use cases. But how you actually work — which apps you live in, how often the symbol comes up, and whether you're writing for technical or general audiences — shapes which method fits most naturally into your workflow. 🎯