Currency symbols · U+A2

¢Cent symbol

¢ is the Cent character. It is text, not a picture — it takes the colour of the type around it and pastes into anything.

How to type it
Unicode
U+A2
Alt code
Alt+162
HTML
¢
Unicode name
Cent Sign
¢
Your font
01 — Origin

Where the Cent symbol comes from

The cent sign is a crossed lowercase c, formed the same way as the pound and the yen. It had a dedicated key on American typewriters and on early computer keyboards, and lost it during the consolidation of keyboard layouts in the 1980s — which is why the character survives but the key does not.

Sub-dollar prices, mostly in American retail and in older price lists: 99¢. Modern pricing usually writes $0.99 instead, which is why the symbol now reads as slightly retro.

Worth knowing
It has no place in a formal invoice: accounting conventions want a single currency unit, so $0.99 is correct where 99¢ is informal.
02 — Codes

Cent symbol codes

Tap any value to copy it. All of them produce the same character — they just belong to different places.

03 — How to type

How to type ¢ on any keyboard

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

Windows
Hold Alt and type 162 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 “cent”. 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 ¢ or ¢. In CSS content: "\00A2". Make sure the page is served as UTF-8 and the raw character works too.
04 — Font support

Will ¢ 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.

97% 143 of 147 fonts

Safe everywhere. This one is in almost every font ever installed, including the defaults on Windows, Mac and Android.

05 — Similar

Symbols people confuse with ¢

Lookalikes that are not the same character at all — separate codes, separate fonts, and here they number 8.

$ Dollar SignU+24 · has its own page £ Pound SignU+A3 · has its own page ¥ Yen SignU+A5 · has its own page
06 — Related

Other currency symbols

Symbols from the same family, each with its own page: where it came from, how to type it and how well fonts support it.

€ Euro symbolIn 94% of system fonts $ Dollar symbolIn 97% of system fonts £ Pound symbolIn 97% of system fonts ¥ Yen symbolIn 98% of system fonts ₹ Rupee symbolIn 42% of system fonts
07 — Same block

Currency symbols

Every currency sign, from the euro to the rupee and the bitcoin.

All currency symbols →
08 — FAQ

Cent symbol — questions

How do I type the Cent symbol?
On Windows hold Alt and type 162 on the numeric keypad. On Mac open the character viewer with Control + Command + Space and search “Cent”. Or just tap the symbol on this page — it goes straight to your clipboard.
What is the HTML code for ¢?
Write it as ¢ or ¢ in HTML, \00A2 in CSS content, and \u00A2 in JavaScript. All four produce the same character.
Is ¢ an emoji?
No. ¢ 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 ¢ 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 143 of them include it. The character itself is always correct; only the drawing is missing.