U+20AC · Currency symbol
HTML entity
€
LaTeX
\euro
Euro Sign Symbol €
€ is euro sign. Write it in HTML as € or paste the character directly. It was added in Unicode 2.1, and Unicode files it under Currency symbol.
What Unicode says about €
currency sign for the European Monetary Union
euro, not ecu
— annotation from the Unicode Standard, NamesList.txt
Codes & technical data
| Unicode | U+20AC | |
|---|---|---|
| HTML hex | € | |
| HTML decimal | € | |
| CSS | \20AC | |
| JavaScript | \u{20AC} | |
| Python | \U000020AC | |
| Java / C# | \u20AC | |
| Rust | \u{20ac} | |
| Swift | \u{20AC} | |
| PHP | \u{20AC} | |
| URL encoded | %E2%82%AC | |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 82 AC | |
| UTF-16 bytes | 20AC | |
| Base64 | 4oKs | |
| Decimal | 8364 | |
| HTML entity | € | |
| LaTeX | \euro | |
| Category | Currency symbol (Sc) | |
| Introduced | Unicode 2.1 | |
Will € survive being pasted?
- Normalisation. Yes. € is unchanged by NFKC, so it survives normalising systems intact.
- Legacy encodings. € is Unicode-only — it has no Latin-1 equivalent, so a system stuck on an 8-bit encoding cannot represent it.
- Size. 3 bytes in UTF-8. Character-limited fields — SMS, bios, some form validators — usually count bytes, not characters.
Unicode cross-references
The standard points readers of € at these characters — usually because they look alike, or because one is the correct choice where the other is often used by mistake.
Nearby in Currency Symbols
Currencies that were not already in Latin-1. The block grows as economies adopt new signs: the euro arrived in 1998, the Indian rupee in 2010, the Saudi riyal in 2025.
How to type €
| Windows | Type 20AC then press Alt+X |
|---|---|
| macOS | Press Ctrl+Cmd+Space, then search for “euro sign” |
| Linux | Press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 20ac, press Enter |
| HTML | € |
About Unicode’s Currency symbol category
Unicode classifies this as a currency symbol. Spreadsheets and number formatters recognise the category, which is why a cell formatted as currency can display it without being told it is text.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I type the € euro sign symbol?
- On Windows, type 20AC and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 20ac. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
- What is the code for €?
- Euro Sign is U+20AC, written in HTML as € and in LaTeX as \euro. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
- What kind of character is €?
- Euro Sign is filed under Currency symbol in the Currency Symbols block, and was introduced in Unicode 2.1. Unicode classifies this as a currency symbol. Spreadsheets and number formatters recognise the category, which is why a cell formatted as currency can display it without being told it is text.