Unicode Character Lookup
This free Unicode character lookup tool lets you identify any character, symbol or emoji instantly. Paste a glyph or enter a hex code point like U+00B0 to inspect its official Unicode name, category, HTML entity, JavaScript escape, UTF-8 encoding, and keyboard shortcuts.
You can also type a code point such as U+2713, 2713 or ✓.
How to inspect any character or code point
Computers store every letter, punctuation mark, emoji and mathematical sign as a numerical code point within the universal Unicode character set. When you encounter an unfamiliar glyph in an email, a dataset or a website, identifying it can be difficult because look-alike symbols frequently share similar visual shapes while behaving completely differently in code. This Unicode character lookup tool resolves that ambiguity by parsing any pasted character against the complete Unicode character database in real time.
You can paste single characters, complex multi-character emoji sequences, or input raw identifiers directly. The search input accepts standard hexadecimal notations such as U+00B0, plain hex numbers like 2713, C-style hex literals like 0x2713, decimal HTML numeric character references like ✓, hex entities like ✓, and named web entities like °. Once entered, the tool separates each grapheme cluster and displays its detailed technical specifications.
Understanding the character details
Each inspected character displays a comprehensive technical card containing essential encoding attributes used by software engineers, technical writers and web developers:
- Official Unicode Name: The authoritative title assigned by the Unicode Consortium, matching entries in what is Unicode reference documents.
- Code Point & Block: The exact hexadecimal address (such as U+00B0 for the degree symbol) and the specific Unicode block it belongs to.
- HTML Entities: Both the standard named entity (where available) and the universal decimal and hexadecimal numeric references required for web development.
- Programming Escapes: Ready-to-copy code escapes for JavaScript, JSON, CSS, and Python strings, eliminating copy-paste encoding errors in application source files.
- Encodings: Exact byte representations in modern UTF-8 and UTF-16 formats, as detailed in our guide to UTF-8 explained.
- Keyboard Shortcuts: The standard Windows Alt code (for both OEM Code Page 437 and ANSI Windows-1252), Mac Option shortcut, and Linux Unicode hex input sequence.
Common symbols and confusable glyphs
Character lookup tools are indispensable when diagnosing subtle bugs caused by homoglyphs and invisible formatting marks. For example, a Latin hyphen-minus can easily be confused with an em dash or en dash, while zero-width spaces can break string parsing and URL validation. If you need to convert batches of text to web escapes, try our HTML entity converter or the Unicode converter. For discovering hidden whitespace characters, visit the invisible character detector.
Frequently asked questions
What formats can I paste into the Unicode character lookup?
You can paste literal characters, emoji, or enter code point formats including U+XXXX, hex numbers, 0xXXXX, decimal references (✓), hex references (✓), or named HTML entities (©).
How do I find the name of an unknown symbol or emoji?
Copy the unknown symbol from your document or website, paste it into the search box above, and the tool will immediately display its official Unicode name, block, and category.
Why do some characters require surrogate pairs in JavaScript?
Characters above code point U+FFFF (astral planes, including most emoji) require two 16-bit code units called surrogate pairs in JavaScript and UTF-16, which the lookup card breaks down clearly.
Can I look up multiple characters at once?
Yes. If you paste a word or short phrase, the tool breaks down the first 30 characters individually, showing a separate technical card for every glyph.