Greek letters · U+3B1

αAlpha symbol

Greek alpha — first, primary, or the significance level in statistics.

How to type it
Unicode
U+3B1
Alt code
Alt+945
HTML
α
Unicode name
Greek Small Letter Alpha
α
Your font
01 — Origin

Where the Alpha symbol comes from

Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, itself borrowed from the Phoenician aleph, an ox head. Greek letters became scientific notation in the seventeenth century simply because Latin ran out of letters and every educated European already read Greek.

Significance level in statistics, angular acceleration in physics, transparency in graphics, and alpha as “first version” in software. In every case it means the first or the primary one.

Worth knowing
The lowercase α is the one that carries all these meanings; the capital Α is visually identical to a Latin A and is almost never used, because nobody can tell them apart.
02 — Codes

Alpha symbol codes

Copy whichever form your tool expects. The character behind them does not change.

03 — How to type

How to type α on any keyboard

Pick the route that matches the program in front of you.

Windows
Hold Alt and type 945 on the numeric keypad, then release. Without a keypad, use the Character Map app (search “charmap”).
Mac
Press Control + Command + Space to open the character viewer, then search “alpha”. Double-click to insert.
Phone
There is no shortcut on a phone keyboard. Tap the symbol at the top of this page, then long-press in any text field and choose Paste.
Web and code
In HTML write α or α. In CSS content: "\03B1". Make sure the page is served as UTF-8 and the raw character works too.
04 — Font support

Will α actually show up?

We checked 147 fonts installed on a normal machine and counted how many of them contain this character. A symbol missing from a font is drawn as an empty box — the text is still correct, it just cannot be drawn.

86% 126 of 147 fonts

Safe in most places. Common fonts have it. Older or decorative fonts sometimes do not, so a fallback font will kick in.

05 — Similar

Symbols people confuse with α

Close enough to be mistaken for it, and still a different code point every time.

β Greek Small Letter BetaU+3B2 · has its own page
06 — Related

Other Greek letters used as symbols

The rest of the family, one page each — origin, typing routes and font support, across all 5.

β Beta symbolIn 86% of system fonts Δ Delta symbolIn 86% of system fonts λ Lambda symbolIn 86% of system fonts Σ Sigma symbolIn 86% of system fonts Ω Omega symbolIn 86% of system fonts
07 — Same block

Greek letters

Alpha to omega, the alphabet science borrowed.

All greek letters →
08 — FAQ

Alpha symbol — questions

How do I type the Alpha symbol?
On Windows hold Alt and type 945 on the numeric keypad. On Mac open the character viewer with Control + Command + Space and search “Alpha”. Or just tap the symbol on this page — it goes straight to your clipboard.
What is the HTML code for α?
Write it as α or α in HTML, \03B1 in CSS content, and \u03B1 in JavaScript. All four produce the same character.
Is α an emoji?
No. α is a text character — it takes the colour of the text around it and works in usernames, filenames and documents. An emoji is replaced by a colour picture and is sometimes stripped by forms and systems.
Why does α show as a box on some devices?
Because that font has no drawing for this character. We checked 147 fonts on a normal machine and 126 of them include it. The character itself is always correct; only the drawing is missing.