U+00B1 · Math symbol
HTML entity
±
LaTeX
\pm
Plus-Minus Sign Symbol ±
± is plus-minus sign, U+00B1 — \pm in LaTeX. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Math symbol.
Also known as
- biquintile (astrological aspect: 144°)
Unicode 1.0 called this character plus-or-minus sign. The standard renamed it later, but documents, fonts and font-editing tools from that era still use the old name.
Codes & technical data
| Unicode | U+00B1 | |
|---|---|---|
| HTML hex | ± | |
| HTML decimal | ± | |
| CSS | \00B1 | |
| JavaScript | \u{00B1} | |
| Python | \U000000B1 | |
| Java / C# | \u00B1 | |
| Rust | \u{00b1} | |
| Swift | \u{00B1} | |
| PHP | \u{00B1} | |
| URL encoded | %C2%B1 | |
| UTF-8 bytes | C2 B1 | |
| UTF-16 bytes | 00B1 | |
| Base64 | wrE= | |
| Decimal | 177 | |
| HTML entity | ± | |
| LaTeX | \pm | |
| Category | Math symbol (Sm) | |
| Introduced | Unicode 1.1 | |
Will ± survive being pasted?
- Normalisation. Yes. ± is unchanged by NFKC, so it survives normalising systems intact.
- Legacy encodings. ± exists in Latin-1 and Windows-1252, so even software that predates Unicode can store it.
- Size. 2 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.
Other minus characters
Unicode names 11 characters ending in “minus”. They differ by direction, weight or decoration rather than by meaning.
Nearby in Latin-1 Supplement
The upper half of ISO 8859-1: the accented letters and the symbols that Western European printing needed but ASCII had no room for. This is where ° ± × ÷ £ ¥ © ® ½ ¼ live, which makes it the most-copied symbol block in Unicode despite being one of the oldest.
How to type ±
| Windows | Type 00B1 then press Alt+X, or hold Alt and type 177 on the numeric keypad |
|---|---|
| macOS | Press Ctrl+Cmd+Space, then search for “plus-minus sign” |
| Linux | Press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 00b1, press Enter |
| HTML | ± |
About Unicode’s Math symbol category
Unicode classifies this as a mathematical symbol, which means software that lays out formulas treats it as an operator or relation and gives it spacing accordingly, rather than setting it tight against its neighbours like a letter.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I type the ± plus-minus sign symbol?
- On Windows, type 00B1 and press Alt+X. You can also hold Alt and type 177 on the numeric keypad. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 00b1. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
- What is the code for ±?
- Plus-Minus Sign is U+00B1, written in HTML as ± and in LaTeX as \pm. In UTF-8 it takes 2 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
- What kind of character is ±?
- Plus-Minus Sign is filed under Math symbol in the Latin-1 Supplement block, and was introduced in Unicode 1.1. Unicode classifies this as a mathematical symbol, which means software that lays out formulas treats it as an operator or relation and gives it spacing accordingly, rather than setting it tight against its neighbours like a letter.