SymbolHub

At Sign (@)

The at sign @ is Unicode U+0040, the commercial accounting symbol now universally used in email addresses and social media handles. Press Copy to put it on your clipboard.

Unicode
U+0040
HTML
@
Word
0040 Alt+X

How to type the at sign (@)

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

Windows

  1. In Word or Outlook, type 0040 and press Alt + X. Alt + X converts the hex code before the cursor into the character, and back again.
  2. Press Win + R, type charmap and press Enter. Tick “Advanced view”, search for Commercial At, then Select and Copy. Character Map is built into every version of Windows.

Mac

  1. Press Control + Command + Space to open the Character Viewer, search for at and double-click it.
  2. With the Unicode Hex Input keyboard enabled (System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources), hold Option and type 0040.

Linux & ChromeOS

  1. Press Ctrl + Shift + U, type 40, then press Enter or Space. Works in GTK and IBus apps (GNOME, Firefox, Chrome, LibreOffice) and on ChromeOS.

iPhone & iPad

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

Android

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

Microsoft Word

  1. Type 0040, then press Alt + X.
  2. Insert → Symbol → More Symbols. Set “from” to Unicode (hex), type 0040 in “Character code” and click Insert.

Google Docs

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

Excel & Google Sheets

  1. Enter =UNICHAR(64) in a cell. It works in Excel 2013 and later and in Google Sheets.

HTML

  1. Write @ or @ in your HTML.

What does @ mean?

The @ symbol, officially titled COMMERCIAL AT in Unicode (U+0040), is a foundational pillar of modern digital communication. Originating in medieval mercantile ledgers, Venetian accounting records from the early 1500s show merchants using a swirling lowercase 'a' as an abbreviation for the amphora, a standard Mediterranean earthenware jug used to measure shipping volume and grain weight. Over following centuries, English commerce adopted the symbol as accounting shorthand for "at the rate of", as in "6 bushels @ $5 per bushel". Because of its regular commercial usage, the mark was added to early mechanical typewriters in the late nineteenth century.

The symbol's explosive digital revolution occurred in 1971, when American computer scientist Ray Tomlinson was developing networked electronic mail for ARPANET. Tomlinson needed a punctuation character that would never appear inside an individual's personal name to separate the user identity from their remote network host computer. Glancing down at his Teletype Model 33 keyboard, he selected @, creating the revolutionary syntax "user@host" that still powers global email today.

In modern social networks and messaging platforms, @ has taken on another universal role as the "mention" or user handle prefix on platforms like X (Twitter), Instagram, Discord, and Slack. It also plays diverse syntactic duties in programming, serving as a Python decorator prefix, an Objective-C string identifier, and a CSS media query directive. Compare @ with other key characters such as the ampersand &, the hashtag symbol #, and the tilde ~ in our keyboard symbols directory.

Common uses

  • Email addresses: separating the mailbox username from the domain host name (e.g., info@example.com)
  • Social media tagging: prefixing usernames on Instagram, X, YouTube, and TikTok to mention or credit creators
  • Programming decorators: prefixing function and class decorators in Python (e.g., @dataclass)
  • Commerce and billing: denoting unit pricing in invoices and receipts (e.g., 10 units @ $15 each)

At Sign codes for HTML, CSS and programming

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

Unicode code pointU+0040
HTML entity (named)@
HTML decimal@
HTML hex@
CSS contentcontent: "\40";
JavaScript"\u0040"
Python"\u0040"
Python (by name)"\N{COMMERCIAL AT}"
Java / C#"\u0040"
UTF-8 bytes40
UTF-160040
URL encoded%40

@ vs look-alike characters

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

CharNameWhen to use it
Small Commercial At
U+FE6B		Small commercial at, a smaller halfwidth character used in East Asian computing.
Fullwidth Commercial At
U+FF20		Fullwidth commercial at, used in East Asian scripts to occupy a full monospaced ideographic block.
Copyright
U+00A9		Copyright symbol, which encloses a letter C rather than an A.
Circled Latin Small Letter A
U+24D0		Circled Latin small letter A, an alphanumeric enclosure glyph.

Symbols similar to @

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

@ character properties

Official Unicode name
COMMERCIAL AT
Also known as
commercial at, at symbol, arobase, snailshell, strudel
Code point
U+0040
Unicode block
Basic Latin (U+0000–U+007F)
General category
Other punctuation (Po)
Added in
Unicode 1.1 (1993)
Plane
Basic Multilingual Plane (0)
Emoji
No, it is a text symbol

Frequently asked questions

Why did Ray Tomlinson pick the @ symbol for email addresses?

In 1971, Ray Tomlinson wanted a character available on standard computer keyboards that would never appear in human names, cleanly indicating that the user was located "at" a specific remote network host machine.

What is the @ symbol called in other languages?

The @ symbol has colourful nicknames across languages: in French and Spanish it is called "arobase" or "arroba" (from an Arabic unit of weight); in German it is "Klammeraffe" (spider monkey); in Italian "chiocciola" (snail); and in Hebrew "strudel" (pastry swirl).

How do I type the @ symbol on different keyboard layouts?

On a US keyboard, press Shift + 2. On a UK keyboard, press Shift + ' (apostrophe). On German, French, and Spanish keyboards, press AltGr + Q or AltGr + 2.

What is the alt code for the at sign?

On Windows, hold Alt and type 64 on the numeric keypad to get @. On a laptop without a keypad, copy it from this page or use 0040 then Alt + X in Word.

How do I type the at sign on a Mac?

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

What is the HTML code for the at sign?

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

What is the Unicode for the at sign?

@ is U+0040, officially named COMMERCIAL AT, in the Basic Latin block. It has been part of Unicode since version 1.1 (1993).