Alpha Symbol (α)

Q: What is the capital alpha symbol?

The capital is Α (U+0391). It is identical in shape to the Latin letter A, so most people write the lowercase α when they mean the Greek letter.

Q: What does α mean in statistics?

It is the significance level: the probability of rejecting a true null hypothesis. The most common choice is α = 0.05.

Q: What is the alt code for the alpha symbol?

On Windows, hold Alt and type 224 on the numeric keypad to get α. On a laptop without a keypad, copy it from this page or use 03B1 then Alt + X in Word.

Q: How do I type the alpha symbol on a Mac?

There is no single Option shortcut for α on the US layout. Press Control + Command + Space to open the Character Viewer, search for “alpha” and double-click it, or copy it from this page.

Q: What is the HTML code for the alpha symbol?

Use the named entity α or the numeric reference α (hex α). All three display α in every browser.

Q: What is the Unicode for the alpha symbol?

α is U+03B1, officially named GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA, in the Greek and Coptic block. It has been part of Unicode since version 1.1 (1993).

The alpha symbol α is Unicode U+03B1, the first letter of the Greek alphabet. Press Copy to put it on your clipboard, or type it with Alt + 224 on Windows.

Unicode: U+03B1
HTML: α
Windows: Alt + 224

How to type the alpha symbol (α)

The quickest way is to press Copy above and paste. To type α yourself, use the method for your device below.

Windows

Hold Alt and type 224 on the numeric keypad. This older code (from code page 437) works in Notepad, Word and most desktop apps.
In Word or Outlook, type 03B1 and press Alt + X. Alt + X converts the hex code before the cursor into the character, and back again.
Press Win + R, type charmap and press Enter. Tick “Advanced view”, search for Greek Small Letter Alpha, then Select and Copy. Character Map is built into every version of Windows.

Mac

Press Control + Command + Space to open the Character Viewer, search for alpha and double-click it.
With the Unicode Hex Input keyboard enabled (System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources), hold Option and type 03B1.

Linux & ChromeOS

Press Ctrl + Shift + U, type 3b1, then press Enter or Space. Works in GTK and IBus apps (GNOME, Firefox, Chrome, LibreOffice) and on ChromeOS.

iPhone & iPad

Copy α from this page, then go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement and add it with a shortcut such as ;alph. The shortcut then turns into the symbol as you type, in every app.

Android

Copy α here, then open Gboard settings → Dictionary → Personal dictionary and add it with a shortcut.

Microsoft Word

Type 03B1, then press Alt + X.
Insert → Symbol → More Symbols. Set “from” to Unicode (hex), type 03B1 in “Character code” and click Insert.

Google Docs

Insert → Special characters, then search for “alpha” or draw it in the box.

Excel & Google Sheets

Enter =UNICHAR(945) in a cell. It works in Excel 2013 and later and in Google Sheets.

HTML

Write α or α in your HTML.

What does α mean?

Alpha (α, capital Α) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, pronounced “AL-fuh” in English and “AHL-fah” in modern Greek. It comes from the Phoenician letter aleph and is the ancestor of the Latin A, which is why the capital looks identical to an English A. The phrase “alpha and omega”, the first and last letters, means the beginning and the end.

In science and maths the lowercase α does a lot of work. Statisticians use it for the significance level of a test (α = 0.05), physicists for alpha particles and alpha decay, and engineers for angles, angular acceleration and the coefficient of thermal expansion. In software, an alpha release is an early test build that comes before beta. Greek-letter fraternities and sororities in the US write the capital, as in ΑΦΑ.

On Windows, Alt + 224 types α in most desktop apps, a leftover from the original IBM PC character set.

Common uses

Statistics: reject the null hypothesis if p < α
Physics: α radiation, α-particles in a Geiger counter
Geometry and trigonometry: an angle α in a triangle
Software versions: v2.0-α, alpha testing
Finance: “alpha” is the excess return of an investment over its benchmark

Alpha Symbol codes for HTML, CSS and programming

Every code below produces α. Use the HTML entity in web pages, the CSS escape in content, and the escape sequence in source code.

Codes for α
Unicode code point	`U+03B1`
HTML entity (named)	`α`
HTML decimal	`α`
HTML hex	`α`
CSS content	`content: "\3B1";`
JavaScript	`"\u03B1"`
Python	`"\u03B1"`
Python (by name)	`"\N{GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA}"`
Java / C#	`"\u03B1"`
LaTeX	`\alpha`
UTF-8 bytes	`CE B1`
UTF-16	`03B1`
URL encoded	`%CE%B1`
Alt code (CP437)	`Alt + 224`

α vs look-alike characters

These characters look similar to α but have a different meaning and code. Pasting the wrong one can break search, sorting and screen readers.

Char	Name	When to use it
	A `U+0061`	The Latin small letter a. Some fonts draw a single-storey a that looks close to α, but it is a different letter to search engines and spell-checkers.
	Proportional to `U+221D`	Proportional to (U+221D), a maths operator. It has an open right side and is wider than α.
	Greek capital Alpha `U+0391`	Greek capital Alpha (U+0391). It looks exactly like the Latin A, so never use it in place of A in normal words: it breaks search and can look like phishing.
	Alpha `U+0251`	Latin small letter alpha (U+0251), used in the phonetic alphabet (IPA) for the vowel in “father”.

Symbols similar to α

Click to copy, or open a symbol for its codes. See the full greek letters collection.

α character properties

Official Unicode name: GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
Also known as: alpha, greek letter alpha, lowercase alpha
Code point: U+03B1
Unicode block: Greek and Coptic (U+0370–U+03FF)
General category: Lowercase letter (Ll)
Added in: Unicode 1.1 (1993)
Plane: Basic Multilingual Plane (0)
Emoji: No, it is a text symbol

Frequently asked questions

What is the capital alpha symbol?