Dingbats and signs · U+266A

♪Music note symbol

The text note that goes in bios and nicknames, where the 🎵 emoji would read as a sticker.

Looking for the colour emoji instead? 🎵 Musical Note — same idea, drawn as a picture by each platform.

How to type it
Unicode
U+266A
Alt code
Alt+9834
HTML
♪
Unicode name
Eighth Note
U+266AYour font
♪

01 — Origin

Where the Music note symbol comes from

The eighth note entered Unicode as part of the musical symbols inherited from typesetting, alongside ♫ ♭ ♯. These are not the full notation set — proper sheet music lives in a separate block of over two hundred characters — but they are the ones printers already had in metal type.

Bios, nicknames, playlist titles and anywhere a caption needs to say “music” quietly. Being text, it takes the colour of the type around it and passes through username fields that reject emojis.

Worth knowing
The single ♪ and the beamed ♫ are different characters, not one drawn twice. In real notation the beam means the notes are played as a group, which is why ♫ reads as a phrase and ♪ as a beat.

02 — Codes

Music note 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 9834 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 “music note”. 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: "\266A". 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.

50% 74 of 147 fonts

Check before you rely on it. Plenty of fonts skip this character. It works in system UI and common documents, but a designed font may not carry it.

05 — Similar

Symbols people confuse with ♪

These look alike but are different characters — different codes, different fonts, sometimes different meaning.

06 — Related

Other marks and signs

The rest of the family, one page each — origin, typing routes and font support, across all 6.

✓ Check mark symbolIn 43% of system fonts ✗ X mark symbolIn 43% of system fonts ★ Star symbolIn 34% of system fonts ♥ Heart symbolIn 76% of system fonts ☮ Peace symbolIn 7% of system fonts ☀ Sun symbolIn 35% of system fonts

07 — Same block

Dingbats and signs

Stars, snowflakes, scissors, checkmarks — the printer’s ornament set.

All dingbats and signs →

08 — FAQ

Music note symbol — questions

How do I type the Music note symbol?
On Windows hold Alt and type 9834 on the numeric keypad. On Mac open the character viewer with Control + Command + Space and search “Music note”. 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, \266A in CSS content, and \u266A 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 74 of them include it. The character itself is always correct; only the drawing is missing.