How to Type the Degree Symbol in Excel (Every Method Explained)

The degree symbol (°) is one of those characters that isn't sitting on your keyboard, yet it shows up constantly in spreadsheets — temperature readings, geographic coordinates, angle measurements, and more. Excel doesn't have a dedicated button for it, but there are several reliable ways to insert it. Which method works best depends on how you're working, what system you're on, and how often you need it.

Why the Degree Symbol Isn't on Your Keyboard

Standard keyboards are designed around the most frequently typed characters. Symbols like °, ©, and ™ were left off to keep layouts manageable. They exist in Unicode (the degree symbol is U+00B0) and in older character encoding systems, but you need a workaround to access them in Excel specifically.

This matters because Excel treats the degree symbol as a text character, not a number format. If you type 72°, Excel stores it as text — which means it won't participate in calculations. Understanding this distinction shapes which insertion method makes sense for your data.

Method 1: Keyboard Shortcut (Windows)

The fastest method on Windows is the Alt code:

1. Click the cell where you want the symbol
2. Hold Alt and type 0176 on the numeric keypad (not the top-row numbers)
3. Release Alt — the ° symbol appears

⌨️ This requires a full keyboard with a NumLock-enabled numeric keypad. Laptops without a dedicated numpad often can't use this method directly, though some allow it through an Fn key combination.

Method 2: Keyboard Shortcut (Mac)

On a Mac, the shortcut is simpler:

• Press Option + Shift + 8

This works system-wide, including inside Excel for Mac. No numeric keypad needed.

Method 3: Insert Symbol Dialog

This is the most universally accessible method — it works on any Windows or Mac version of Excel without memorizing codes:

1. Click the cell or position your cursor in the formula bar
2. Go to Insert → Symbol
3. In the Symbol dialog, set the font to (normal text) and the subset to Latin-1 Supplement
4. Find the degree sign (°), click Insert, then Close

The dialog also shows the character code at the bottom, which is useful if you want to learn the shortcut later. This method is slower but reliable when you can't remember alt codes.

Method 4: Copy and Paste

Sometimes the most practical approach is to copy the symbol from somewhere else — a web search, a Unicode reference page, or even another cell — and paste it directly. Once it's in one cell, you can copy it across your spreadsheet as needed.

This is particularly useful in shared workplaces where users have different keyboard setups or don't want to memorize shortcuts.

Method 5: CHAR Function

Excel has a built-in function for inserting special characters using their character code numbers:

=CHAR(176) 

This inserts the degree symbol as a formula result. More usefully, you can concatenate it with a number:

="72"&CHAR(176) 

Or combine it with a cell reference:

=A1&CHAR(176) 

This approach is powerful when you're building dynamic labels or formatting output columns. The result is still text, not a numeric value — the same trade-off applies as with any method.

Note: On Mac, CHAR(176) works the same way. The character code is consistent across platforms.

Method 6: AutoCorrect

If you type the degree symbol frequently, you can set up AutoCorrect to replace a placeholder like (deg) with ° automatically:

1. Go to File → Options → Proofing → AutoCorrect Options (Windows) Or Excel → Preferences → AutoCorrect (Mac)
2. In the Replace field, type your shorthand (e.g., (deg))
3. In the With field, paste or insert °
4. Click Add, then OK

From that point, typing your shorthand triggers the replacement. This is particularly useful for users who enter temperature or angle data repeatedly throughout the day.

Keeping Numbers Numeric: The Format Cell Approach

If you need 72° to still behave like the number 72 in calculations, none of the above methods will help — they all append text. The solution is a custom number format:

1. Select the cells containing your numbers
2. Press Ctrl+1 (or Cmd+1 on Mac) to open Format Cells
3. Go to Number → Custom
4. In the Type field, enter: 0"°"
5. Click OK

The cell displays 72° but stores 72. You can still average, sum, or calculate with those values. This is the right approach for scientific data, temperature columns, or any case where you need both the symbol and the math to work.

Variables That Change Which Method Makes Sense

A few factors determine which approach fits your situation:

• Keyboard type — Full keyboards with numeric keypads support Alt codes; laptop users often can't
• Operating system — Mac and Windows shortcuts differ entirely
• Data type — Text labels versus calculated numeric values require completely different approaches
• Entry volume — Someone logging hundreds of temperature readings daily has a different need than someone adding one-off annotations
• Excel version — Older versions of Excel for Mac have slightly different menu paths for Insert Symbol and AutoCorrect

🔢 Whether you're building a weather log, a technical spec sheet, or a geographic data table, the degree symbol behaves the same way — but how it interacts with your formulas, your formatting, and your input workflow depends entirely on the specifics of what you're building.