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. Whether you're writing temperature readings, geographic coordinates, or angle measurements, macOS gives you several reliable ways to insert it.

The Fastest Method: Keyboard Shortcut

The quickest way to type a degree sign on a Mac is with a keyboard shortcut:

Press Option + Shift + 8

This works in nearly every Mac application — Pages, Word, TextEdit, email clients, browsers, Slack, and most text fields. The degree symbol appears immediately at your cursor position, no menu navigation required.

It's worth memorizing this one if you use the symbol regularly. The logic is that Shift + 8 produces the asterisk (*), and adding Option shifts it to the degree sign in macOS's extended character layer.

Using the Character Viewer

If you prefer a visual approach or need to find symbols you don't have memorized, macOS includes a built-in Character Viewer:

1. Click into any text field where you want the symbol
2. Press Control + Command + Space to open the Character Viewer
3. In the search box, type "degree"
4. Double-click the degree sign (°) to insert it

The Character Viewer also shows related symbols — like the degree Celsius (℃) and degree Fahrenheit (℉) characters, which are single Unicode glyphs that combine the degree sign with the letter. Depending on your use case, one of those may be more appropriate than a plain degree sign followed by a typed "C" or "F."

Typing via the Emoji & Symbols Menu

Some Mac users access the same Character Viewer through the menu bar:

1. In any app, go to Edit → Emoji & Symbols (or Edit → Special Characters in older macOS versions)
2. Search for "degree"
3. Double-click to insert

This is the same tool as the keyboard shortcut method above — just a different entry point. Some users find the menu route more intuitive when they're not sure what they're looking for.

Using the Touch Bar (Older MacBook Pros)

On MacBook Pro models with a Touch Bar (introduced in 2016, phased out by 2021), the Character Viewer was accessible through the Touch Bar's customizable shortcut strip. If you're on one of those machines and have set up custom Touch Bar shortcuts, the workflow is similar — but the keyboard shortcut method is generally faster regardless.

Setting Up a Text Replacement

If you type the degree symbol constantly — for example, you write about weather, science, or engineering — macOS's Text Replacement feature can automate it:

1. Open System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS)
2. Go to Keyboard → Text Replacements
3. Click the + button
4. In the Replace field, type a trigger like deg
5. In the With field, paste the degree symbol: °

After saving, typing deg followed by a space will automatically swap in °. This syncs across your Apple devices if iCloud is enabled, so it works on iPhone and iPad too. 🔄

HTML and Code Contexts

If you're working in HTML, a web editor, or a technical document where you need the degree sign in code rather than typed text, the standard representations are:

These are useful when you're building a webpage and want the degree symbol to render consistently across browsers and systems, rather than relying on a typed character that might display differently depending on encoding.

Copy and Paste (The Fallback)

Sometimes you just need the symbol once and don't want to think about it: ° — copy that and paste it. Every method above produces the same Unicode character (U+00B0), so a copy-paste from anywhere reliable works fine.

Which Method Suits Which Situation

A Few Things Worth Knowing

The degree symbol is not the same as the masculine ordinal indicator (º). That character — accessed via Option + 0 on a Mac — looks nearly identical but is a different Unicode character used in Spanish and Portuguese for ordinal numbers (like "1º"). Using it in place of a true degree sign is a common mistake in copy-paste workflows when the source wasn't careful.

Font rendering varies. The degree symbol will look slightly different across typefaces — some render it larger, some slightly raised. In professional documents, it's worth checking how it looks in your chosen font at your chosen size. 🔍

Not all text fields support special characters the same way. Most modern macOS apps handle Unicode without issues, but some older software, legacy web forms, or plain-text terminals may behave unexpectedly. If a degree sign appears as a placeholder box or question mark, the text field may be limited to ASCII input.

The shortcut, the Character Viewer, and text replacement each fit different working styles and frequencies of use. Whether the keyboard method becomes muscle memory or you rely on automation depends on how often you reach for this symbol — and what kind of work you're doing when you do.