Subscript and Superscript Symbols: Complete Copy Paste Collection

Need tiny numbers above or below your text? Subscript and superscript symbols let you write things like H₂O, x², or E=mc² without fancy formatting tools. These Unicode characters work everywhere — social media posts, text messages, emails, and documents that don't support rich text formatting. This guide gives you every subscript and superscript character available, ready to copy and paste.

What Are Subscript and Superscript Characters?

Subscript characters appear slightly below the normal text line, like the "2" in H₂O. Superscript characters sit above it, like the "2" in x². While word processors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs have built-in formatting for this, many platforms — Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, plain text editors — don't. That's where Unicode subscript and superscript characters come in.

The Unicode standard includes pre-made subscript and superscript versions of many common characters. These aren't formatted text — they're actual characters in the Unicode standard, which means they work anywhere regular text works. You just copy them and paste them into whatever you're writing.

Subscript Numbers — Copy and Paste

Here are all the subscript digits available in Unicode. Click or tap any character to copy it:

Full string: ₀₁₂₃₄₅₆₇₈₉

Subscript Operators and Punctuation

Full string: ₊ ₋ ₌ ₍ ₎

Subscript Letters

Unicode includes a limited set of subscript letters. Not every letter has a subscript equivalent — the standard only covers those commonly needed in chemistry and physics notation:

Full string: ₐ ₑ ₒ ₓ ₔ ₕ ₖ ₗ ₘ ₙ ₚ ₛ ₜ

These are particularly useful in chemistry. For example, the chemical formula for caffeine can be partially written with subscripts: C₈H₁₀N₄O₂. The "₁₀" uses the subscript 1 and 0, and so on.

Superscript Numbers — Copy and Paste

Superscript numbers are probably the most-requested characters on iLoveSymbols. They're used for exponents, footnotes, ordinal indicators, and more:

Full string: ⁰¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹

Superscript Operators and Punctuation

Full string: ⁺ ⁻ ⁼ ⁽ ⁾

Superscript Letters

Only a few letters have superscript equivalents in Unicode. The most commonly used are:

Full string: ⁿ ⁱ

The superscript "n" (ⁿ) is extremely useful for writing nth powers like xⁿ, while the superscript "i" (ⁱ) appears in mathematical notation. For other superscript letters, you'll need rich text formatting in a word processor.

Common Uses for Subscript and Superscript

Chemistry Formulas

Chemical formulas rely heavily on subscripts. Here are some common ones you can write with these characters:

• Water: H₂O
• Carbon dioxide: CO₂
• Sulfuric acid: H₂SO₄
• Table salt: NaCl
• Ammonia: NH₃
• Methane: CH₄

Mathematical Expressions

Superscript characters make it possible to write math in plain text:

• Squared: x²
• Cubed: x³
• Nth power: xⁿ
• Inverse: x⁻¹
• Einstein's equation: E=mc²
• Pythagorean theorem: a² + b² = c²

Social Media and Messaging

Superscript characters are popular on social media for creating stylized text. People use them for:

• Footnote-style comments: "This is my opinionᵀᴹ"
• Stylized usernames and bios
• Writing dates in compact format: ˢᵗ, ⁿᵈ, ʳᵈ, ᵗʰ
• Adding mathematical flair to captions

Limitations to Know About

Unicode subscript and superscript characters have some limitations worth knowing:

• Not all letters are available. Only a handful of lowercase letters have subscript forms, and only two have superscript forms. If you need full alphabets, you'll need a word processor.
• Rendering varies. Different fonts and devices may display these characters slightly differently. Some older systems might show a fallback box instead of the proper character.
• Screen readers may struggle. Accessibility tools might not read these characters correctly, so avoid using them in critical content where screen reader compatibility matters.
• They're separate characters. A subscript "2" (₂) is a completely different character from a regular "2". This means search engines and text tools treat them differently, which can affect SEO and text matching.

How to Type Subscript and Superscript Without Copying

If you need these characters frequently, here are shortcuts that work in common applications:

Microsoft Word

Select the text you want to format, then press Ctrl + = for subscript or Ctrl + Shift + + for superscript. On Mac, use Cmd instead of Ctrl.

Google Docs

Use the same shortcuts as Word, or go to Format > Text > Subscript/Superscript in the menu.

HTML

Use the <sub> tag for subscript and <sup> tag for superscript. For example: H<sub>2</sub>O renders as H₂O.

Quick Reference Table

Conclusion

Subscript and superscript Unicode characters solve a real problem: how to write things like H₂O and x² in environments that don't support text formatting. Whether you're a student writing chemistry formulas in a chat, a social media manager adding flair to posts, or just someone who wants to type "E=mc²" properly in a tweet, these characters have you covered. Bookmark this page and come back whenever you need to grab one — that's what it's here for.