How do I type the ¥ yen sign symbol?

On Windows, type 00A5 and press Alt+X. You can also hold Alt and type 165 on the numeric keypad. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 00a5. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.

What is the code for ¥?

Yen Sign is U+00A5, written in HTML as ¥ and in LaTeX as \mathyen. In UTF-8 it takes 2 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.

U+00A5 · Currency symbol

HTML entity

LaTeX

\mathyen

Yen Sign Symbol ¥

¥ is yen sign, U+00A5. Unicode also records it as “yuan sign (renminbi)”. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Currency symbol.

Also known as

yuan sign (renminbi)

What Unicode says about ¥

glyph may have one or two crossbars, but the official symbol in Japan and China has two

in native context, specific ideographs may be used for units of these currencies

— annotation from the Unicode Standard, NamesList.txt

Codes & technical data

Unicode	`U+00A5`
HTML hex	`¥`
HTML decimal	`¥`
CSS	`\00A5`
JavaScript	`\u{00A5}`
Python	`\U000000A5`
Java / C#	`\u00A5`
Rust	`\u{00a5}`
Swift	`\u{00A5}`
PHP	`\u{00A5}`
URL encoded	`%C2%A5`
UTF-8 bytes	`C2 A5`
UTF-16 bytes	`00A5`
Base64	`wqU=`
Decimal	`165`
HTML entity	`¥`
LaTeX	`\mathyen`
Category	Currency symbol (Sc)
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.

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.

All 29 characters in Latin-1 Supplement →

How to type ¥

Windows	Type `00A5` then press `Alt`+`X`, or hold `Alt` and type `165` on the numeric keypad
macOS	Press `Ctrl`+`Cmd`+`Space`, then search for “yen sign”
Linux	Press `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`U`, type `00a5`, 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 ¥ yen sign symbol?: On Windows, type 00A5 and press Alt+X. You can also hold Alt and type 165 on the numeric keypad. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 00a5. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
What is the code for ¥?: Yen Sign is U+00A5, written in HTML as ¥ and in LaTeX as \mathyen. In UTF-8 it takes 2 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
What kind of character is ¥?: Yen Sign is filed under Currency symbol in the Latin-1 Supplement block, and was introduced in Unicode 1.1. 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.