SymbolHub

Music Note Symbol (♪)

The music note symbol ♪ is Unicode U+266A, the single eighth note used for music and song lyrics. Press Copy to put it on your clipboard, or type it with Alt + 13 on Windows.

Unicode
U+266A
HTML
♪
Windows
Alt + 13

How to type the music note symbol (♪)

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

Windows

  1. Hold Alt and type 13 on the numeric keypad. This older code (from code page 437) works in Notepad, Word and most desktop apps.
  2. In Word or Outlook, type 266A and press Alt + X. Alt + X converts the hex code before the cursor into the character, and back again.
  3. Press Win + R, type charmap and press Enter. Tick “Advanced view”, search for Eighth Note, 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 eighth note and double-click it.
  2. With the Unicode Hex Input keyboard enabled (System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources), hold Option and type 266A.

Linux & ChromeOS

  1. Press Ctrl + Shift + U, type 266a, 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 ;musi. 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 266A, then press Alt + X.
  2. Insert → Symbol → More Symbols. Set “from” to Unicode (hex), type 266A in “Character code” and click Insert.

Google Docs

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

Excel & Google Sheets

  1. Enter =UNICHAR(9834) in a cell. It works in Excel 2013 and later and in Google Sheets.

HTML

  1. Write ♪ or ♪ in your HTML.

What does ♪ mean?

♪ is a single eighth note, called a quaver in British English. In written music it lasts half a beat in common time, and it is the note most people picture when they think of “a music note”. As a text character it has become shorthand for anything musical: a song, a tune being hummed, or background music.

Its best-known job today is in subtitles and closed captions. Broadcasters put ♪ before and after sung lines, so a caption reads ♪ Happy birthday to you ♪, and viewers know the words are sung rather than spoken. Streaming services follow the same convention.

♪ has been part of PC character sets since the original IBM PC, which is why the short code Alt + 13 still types it in many Windows programs. Word processors that treat Alt + 13 as Enter will not produce it, so Word users are better off with 266A followed by Alt + X.

Common uses

  • Song lyrics in captions: ♪ Let it be, let it be ♪
  • Chat and social posts about music: “Listening to jazz ♪”
  • Playlist and event titles: ♪ Friday Mix ♪
  • Marking a sing-song or cheerful tone: “See you soon ♪”

Music Note Symbol 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+266A
HTML entity (named)♪
HTML decimal♪
HTML hex♪
CSS contentcontent: "\266A";
JavaScript"\u266A"
Python"\u266A"
Python (by name)"\N{EIGHTH NOTE}"
Java / C#"\u266A"
UTF-8 bytesE2 99 AA
UTF-16266A
URL encoded%E2%99%AA
Alt code (CP437)Alt + 13

♪ 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
Beamed Eighth Notes
U+266B		Beamed eighth notes: two quavers joined by a beam. Reads as “music” rather than one note.
Quarter Note
U+2669		Quarter note (crotchet), one full beat. It has a stem but no flag.
Musical Note
U+1F3B5		The musical note emoji. Always shown in colour and at emoji size.
Beamed Sixteenth Notes
U+266C		Beamed sixteenth notes, with a double beam.

Symbols similar to ♪

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

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♪ character properties

Official Unicode name
EIGHTH NOTE
Also known as
eighth note, quaver, musical note, song symbol
Code point
U+266A
Unicode block
Miscellaneous Symbols (U+2600–U+26FF)
General category
Other symbol (So)
Added in
Unicode 1.1 (1993)
Plane
Basic Multilingual Plane (0)
Emoji
No, it is a text symbol

Frequently asked questions

Why do subtitles use the ♪ symbol?

Caption style guides use ♪ to show that words are being sung. It is placed at the start and end of each sung line, so viewers can tell lyrics from dialogue at a glance.

What is the difference between ♪ and ♫?

♪ is a single eighth note. ♫ shows two eighth notes joined by a beam. Both are used as general “music” symbols; ♫ looks more like a melody.

What is the alt code for the music note symbol?

On Windows, hold Alt and type 13 on the numeric keypad to get ♪. On a laptop without a keypad, copy it from this page or use 266A then Alt + X in Word.

How do I type the music note symbol 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 “eighth note” and double-click it, or copy it from this page.

What is the HTML code for the music note symbol?

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

What is the Unicode for the music note symbol?

♪ is U+266A, officially named EIGHTH NOTE, in the Miscellaneous Symbols block. It has been part of Unicode since version 1.1 (1993).