Degree Symbol ° Copy Paste — Keyboard Shortcuts for All Devices
Degree Symbol ° — Copy It Here
Click to copy: °
The degree symbol (°) is used to represent degrees of temperature, angles, geographic coordinates, and arc measurements. It is one of the most frequently needed special characters in everyday writing, yet it's not directly available on most standard keyboards.
All Degree Symbols at a Glance
° — Degree sign (general use)
℃ — Degree Celsius (combined symbol)
℉ — Degree Fahrenheit (combined symbol)
˚ — Ring above (modifier letter — often confused with degree, but different Unicode character)
′ — Prime (for arcminutes and feet)
″ — Double prime (for arcseconds and inches)
How to Type the Degree Symbol on Windows
The classic method is the Alt code. Hold Alt and type 0176 on the numeric keypad. Release Alt. The ° symbol appears. Make sure Num Lock is on for this to work.
Another Windows method: press Windows + period (.) to open the emoji panel. Type "degree" in the search box. The degree symbol appears as an option — click it to insert.
In Microsoft Word and Outlook, use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + @ followed immediately by a space. Word's AutoCorrect also converts certain typed sequences to degree symbols depending on your settings.
How to Type ° on Mac
On macOS, the shortcut is Option + Shift + 8. Hold both Option and Shift, then press 8. The ° symbol appears. This works system-wide in any app.
You can also use Control + Command + Space to open the Character Viewer, search for "degree", and double-click to insert.
How to Type ° on iPhone
On iOS, you can find the degree symbol by pressing and holding the 0 (zero) key on the number keyboard. A pop-up appears with the ° symbol. Slide to it and release. This is the fastest native method on iPhone and iPad.
If that doesn't work on your device, copy it from this page. You can also add a text replacement in Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement: set "deg" to ° so it autocorrects automatically.
How to Type ° on Android
Most Android keyboards include ° in the symbols view. On Gboard, switch to the numbers keyboard (press ?123), then tap the symbols key (=<). Look for ° in the list. On Samsung keyboards, the process is similar through the symbols panel.
If your keyboard doesn't include it, copy from this page or set a text shortcut in your keyboard settings.
HTML Code for the Degree Symbol
In HTML, use ° (the named entity) or ° (decimal numeric entity) or ° (hex numeric entity). All three produce °. The named entity ° is the most readable and widely supported option for HTML documents.
For the combined Celsius symbol ℃, use ℃. For Fahrenheit ℉, use ℉. However, note that these combined symbols are less commonly used — most style guides prefer writing "°C" and "°F" as separate characters for better compatibility and readability.
CSS for the Degree Symbol
In CSS content (for pseudo-elements), use the Unicode escape \00B0 for the degree sign. For example: content: "\00B0". Alternatively, insert the actual ° character directly in your stylesheet if it's saved in UTF-8 encoding.
When to Use ° vs ℃ vs ℉
Most international style guides, including ISO 80000-1, recommend writing temperatures as a number followed by a space, then ° followed immediately by the scale letter: 37 °C or 98.6 °F. This keeps the degree symbol and unit letter as separate characters for maximum compatibility across fonts and systems.
The combined ℃ and ℉ Unicode characters exist but are considered compatibility characters — they were added to Unicode for compatibility with legacy East Asian character sets and are generally not recommended for new text. Stick with ° + C or ° + F for standard writing.
Degree Symbol in Geographic Coordinates
Latitude and longitude are written using degrees (°), minutes (′), and seconds (″). For example: 40°42′46″N, 74°0′22″W is the approximate location of New York City. The degree symbol here is the same Unicode character U+00B0, while minutes use the prime symbol (U+2032) and seconds use the double prime (U+2033).
Do not substitute a regular apostrophe (') for the prime symbol or a regular quotation mark (") for the double prime in professional documents — they look similar but are technically distinct characters.
Degree Symbol for Angles
In mathematics and geometry, the degree symbol indicates angle measurement. A right angle is 90°, a straight angle is 180°, and a full rotation is 360°. In trigonometry, degrees are sometimes converted to radians for calculation — 180° equals π radians.
When typing angle measurements in documents, the degree symbol should be placed immediately after the number with no space: 45° is correct, 45 ° (with a space before °) is incorrect for angle notation (unlike temperature, where a space is preferred per ISO style).
Unicode Details
The degree sign has Unicode code point U+00B0, officially named "DEGREE SIGN." It is in the Latin-1 Supplement block and has been present since Unicode 1.0. The UTF-8 encoding is C2 B0 (two bytes). It should not be confused with the masculine ordinal indicator º (U+00BA), which looks similar but has a different meaning and slightly different appearance in most fonts.