How do I type the ℡ telephone sign symbol?

On Windows, type 2121 and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 2121. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.

What is the code for ℡?

Telephone Sign is U+2121. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.

Will ℡ survive being pasted anywhere?

Not always. Telephone Sign is a compatibility character: any system that applies Unicode NFKC normalisation — search indexes, usernames, identifiers — replaces it with TEL. Use it for display, not where text is normalised.

U+2121 · Other symbol

Telephone Sign Symbol ℡

℡ is telephone sign, U+2121. Unicode records it as a compatibility form of TEL (compat form). It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Other symbol.

Also known as

Unicode 1.0 called this character t e l symbol. The standard renamed it later, but documents, fonts and font-editing tools from that era still use the old name.

What Unicode says about ℡

typical forms for this symbol may use lowercase, small caps or superscripted letter shapes

— annotation from the Unicode Standard, NamesList.txt

Codes & technical data

Unicode	`U+2121`
HTML hex	`℡`
HTML decimal	`℡`
CSS	`\2121`
JavaScript	`\u{2121}`
Python	`\U00002121`
Java / C#	`\u2121`
Rust	`\u{2121}`
Swift	`\u{2121}`
PHP	`\u{2121}`
URL encoded	`%E2%84%A1`
UTF-8 bytes	`E2 84 A1`
UTF-16 bytes	`2121`
Base64	`4oSh`
Decimal	`8481`
Decomposes to	TEL (compat form)
Category	Other symbol (So)
Introduced	Unicode 1.1

Will ℡ survive being pasted?

Normalisation. No. Anything that applies NFKC — search indexes, usernames, domain names, programming identifiers — rewrites ℡ as TEL. Safe for display, not for storage.
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 Letterlike Symbols

Characters built out of letters but treated as symbols — ℃ ℉ №, the trademark and service marks, and the script and blackletter letters that mathematics uses as distinct variables. Most normalise back to plain letters, which is worth knowing before pasting one into a password field.

All 34 characters in Letterlike Symbols →

How to type ℡

Windows	Type `2121` then press `Alt`+`X`
macOS	Press `Ctrl`+`Cmd`+`Space`, then search for “telephone sign”
Linux	Press `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`U`, type `2121`, press `Enter`
HTML	`℡`

About Unicode’s Other symbol category

Unicode files this under "other symbol" — the catch-all for pictographs, signs and marks that are neither maths, currency, nor letter-like. It is the largest symbol category in the standard.

Frequently asked questions

How do I type the ℡ telephone sign symbol?: On Windows, type 2121 and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 2121. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
What is the code for ℡?: Telephone Sign is U+2121. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
Will ℡ survive being pasted anywhere?: Not always. Telephone Sign is a compatibility character: any system that applies Unicode NFKC normalisation — search indexes, usernames, identifiers — replaces it with TEL. Use it for display, not where text is normalised.