Currency Symbols Copy and Paste

How to type currency symbols on Windows

Hold ALT and type the number on the numeric keypad, then let go. ALT 0128 gives €, ALT 0163 gives £, ALT 0165 gives ¥ and ALT 0162 gives ¢. The full ALT code for every character on this page is in the reference table under each grid.

Most currency symbols have no short ALT code, so Microsoft Word offers a better route: type the code point, for example 20B9 for the rupee, then press ALT + X. Word replaces the code with ₹. Press ALT + X again to flip it back and check what you typed.

Anywhere else in Windows, press the Windows key plus the full stop to open the emoji panel, then switch to the symbols tab and choose the currency category.

• ALT codes need the numeric keypad with Num Lock on. The number row above the letters will not work.
• On a laptop without a keypad, use the copy buttons above or the Windows emoji panel.
• The euro also has a dedicated key on most European layouts: ALT GR + 4 or ALT GR + 5, depending on the country.

How to type currency symbols on a Mac

The US English layout puts four currency symbols under the Option key: Option + Shift + 2 for €, Option + 3 for £, Option + 4 for ¢ and Option + Y for ¥. On a UK layout £ is a plain Shift + 3 and Option + 3 gives #.

For everything else press CTRL + CMD + SPACE to open the Character Viewer, type the name of the currency into the search box (try rupee, naira, dong or bitcoin) and double click the result. Drag your favourites into the Favourites list so they stay one click away.

If you type one currency constantly, System Settings then Keyboard then Text Replacements lets you map something like ;inr to ₹ across every app on the Mac.

Currency symbols in Excel and Google Sheets

In Excel, formatting is almost always better than typing the symbol into the cell. A cell formatted as currency still holds a plain number, so it keeps working in SUM and in charts. Select the cells, press CTRL + 1 to open Format Cells, choose Currency or Accounting, and pick the symbol from the dropdown. CTRL + SHIFT + 4 applies the default currency format instantly.

If the symbol you need is not in the dropdown, build a custom format. Format Cells then Custom, and enter something like [$₹-en-IN] #,##0.00 or #,##0.00 " zł". The square bracket form keeps Excel's locale rules, and the quoted form just appends text.

Google Sheets works the same way through Format then Number then Custom currency, where you can paste any symbol from this page into the box. In both apps UNICHAR returns a symbol from its code point, so =UNICHAR(8377) gives ₹ and =UNICHAR(8364) gives €, which is handy when you are building a label inside a formula.

• Accounting format lines the symbols up on the left edge of the column and the digits on the right.
• Never type $ in front of a number you plan to add up, because the cell becomes text.
• A currency symbol pasted into a CSV needs the file saved as UTF-8 or it will arrive as mojibake.

Does the symbol go before or after the number?

It depends on the language, not on the currency. English speaking countries put the symbol first with no space: $1,250.00 and £49.99. Most of continental Europe puts it last with a space and uses a comma for decimals: 1.250,00 € in German, 1 250,00 € in French.

Scandinavian, Polish and Czech conventions also trail the symbol: 1 250,00 kr, 1250,00 zł, 1250,00 Kč. Vietnamese writes 50.000₫ with the sign at the end and no space. Indian English keeps the symbol in front but groups digits differently, so a million and a quarter rupees is ₹12,50,000.

When the audience is international, the three letter ISO code removes all doubt. USD 1,250.00 cannot be mistaken for Canadian or Australian dollars, and finance teams generally prefer it over a bare $.

• English: $1,250.00 and £49.99, symbol first, no space.
• French and German: 1 250,00 € and 1.250,00 €, symbol last with a space.
• Japanese: ¥1,250, symbol first, no decimals in normal use.
• Indian English: ₹12,50,000, symbol first with lakh and crore grouping.
• Formal or cross-border writing: EUR 1 250,00 using the ISO code.

Currency symbols in HTML, CSS and code

Five currency symbols have named HTML entities: € for €, £ for £, ¥ for ¥, ¢ for ¢ and ¤ for the generic ¤. Everything else uses the numeric form, for example ₹ for ₹ and ₿ for ₿. Every table on this page lists the decimal and hex entity for the character next to it.

If your page declares UTF-8 (<meta charset="utf-8">) you can paste the character straight into the markup and skip entities entirely. That is the modern default and it makes the source far easier to read.

In CSS content values use the escape, for example content: "\20B9". In JavaScript the string escape is "\u20B9", and in Python it is "\u20B9" as well. For prices in a web app, prefer Intl.NumberFormat with style currency, which picks the right symbol, the right position and the right digit grouping for the user's locale automatically.

Why one symbol can mean several currencies

The dollar sign is shared by more than twenty currencies, including the Canadian, Australian, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Mexican, Argentine and Colombian dollars and pesos. The pound sign covers sterling as well as the Egyptian, Lebanese, Sudanese and Syrian pounds. The yen sign doubles as the Chinese yuan sign, because both currencies descend from the same word.

In practice the symbol is disambiguated by a prefix (C$, A$, HK$, MX$) or by the ISO code. Inside a country nobody bothers: a price tag in Toronto just says $19.99.

The ¤ character is the odd one out. It is a generic currency sign, a placeholder that stands for any currency, and it appears as a fallback when a font or a locale has no symbol to show. If a price on a website renders as ¤, the formatting code has been given a currency it does not recognise.