FAQ - How to Make the Copyright Symbol © on Any Device

Q: What is the HTML entity for the copyright symbol?

Use © (named entity) or © (decimal numeric) or © (hex numeric) — all three render as © in every modern browser. The HTML 5 spec also accepts the case-insensitive alias &COPY;. Named entities are most readable in source code; numeric entities are the safest fallback if your file encoding is uncertain. In React JSX, you can use the literal '©' character directly in UTF-8 source files, or use the JavaScript escape '\u00A9' inside string literals. In CSS pseudo-elements, use content: '\00A9'; (CSS-specific 4-digit hex format with no 'u' prefix).

Question 1

What is the keyboard shortcut to make the copyright symbol © on Windows?

Accepted Answer

Hold Alt and type 0169 on the numeric keypad with NumLock on — release Alt and © appears. This is the official method documented in Microsoft Support's 'Insert ASCII or Unicode Latin-based symbols and characters' guide, where the legal-symbols table lists © = ALT+0169 alongside ® = ALT+0174 and ™ = ALT+0153. The numeric keypad is required; the number row above the letters does not work for Alt codes. On laptops without a numeric keypad, use the Windows emoji panel: press Win+. (period) and search 'copyright', or in Word/Outlook type 00A9 then press Alt+X to convert the hex code to the character.

Question 2

What is the keyboard shortcut to make © on Mac?

Accepted Answer

Press Option+G on the standard U.S. English keyboard layout — © appears immediately. On non-US Apple keyboard layouts (UK, French, German, etc.), Option+G produces a different character — in that case use the Character Viewer instead: press Fn+E (or Control+Cmd+Space) to open it, type 'copyright' in the search field, then double-click © to insert. You can also access the Character Viewer from any text app's menu bar via Edit > Emoji & Symbols, per the official Apple Mac User Guide (mchlp1560).

Question 3

How do I make the © symbol on iPhone or Android?

Accepted Answer

Neither iOS nor Android exposes © on the default English keyboard. The reliable method on iOS is Text Replacement (different from autocorrect — Text Replacement is a deliberate OS-wide expansion rule): Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement, tap +, set Phrase to © and Shortcut to '(c)' or 'cpr'. Once set, typing the shortcut in any app suggests © above the keyboard. On Android with Gboard, long-press the period '.' key — © appears in the popup on most recent Gboard versions. The cross-version reliable method is Gboard's Personal Dictionary: Gboard Settings > Dictionary > Personal Dictionary > English > add © with shortcut '(c)' or 'cpr'. Alternatively, copy © from this page and paste into your destination.

Question 4

What is the HTML entity for the copyright symbol?

Accepted Answer

Use &copy; (named entity) or &#169; (decimal numeric) or &#xA9; (hex numeric) — all three render as © in every modern browser. The HTML 5 spec also accepts the case-insensitive alias &COPY;. Named entities are most readable in source code; numeric entities are the safest fallback if your file encoding is uncertain. In React JSX, you can use the literal '©' character directly in UTF-8 source files, or use the JavaScript escape '\u00A9' inside string literals. In CSS pseudo-elements, use content: '\00A9'; (CSS-specific 4-digit hex format with no 'u' prefix).

Question 5

Why does my © appear as 'Â©' or 'Ã‚Â©' when I paste it?

Accepted Answer

That is mojibake — a classic encoding mismatch. © in UTF-8 is the two bytes C2 A9. When those bytes are mistakenly interpreted as Windows-1252 / Latin-1, byte C2 becomes Â and byte A9 becomes ©, producing 'Â©'. The double-mangled variant 'Ã‚Â©' happens when the same bytes are misinterpreted twice (UTF-8 → Latin-1 → UTF-8). Fix by ensuring both source and destination use UTF-8: in HTML, declare <meta charset="UTF-8">; in databases, set the table/column charset to utf8mb4 (MySQL) or UTF8 (Postgres); in email headers, set Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8. If the file already contains 'Â©', most text editors offer 'Reopen with encoding > UTF-8' to recover the original ©. As a quick workaround, use the destination's own input shortcut (Alt+0169 / Option+G) instead of pasting.

Question 6

Accepted Answer

© (U+00A9) is the legal copyright symbol — use it in every actual copyright notice. Per U.S. Copyright Office Circular 3, the notice format is © + year of first publication + owner name (example: '© 2017 John Doe'). Ⓒ (U+24B8 CIRCLED LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C) is a typographic look-alike from the Enclosed Alphanumerics block — Wikipedia explicitly notes it is 'different from' © and the Copyright Office has not adopted it for notices, so do NOT use Ⓒ for legal claims. ℗ (U+2117 SOUND RECORDING COPYRIGHT) is the legal symbol used INSTEAD of © for sound recordings — albums display ℗ for the recorded performance and © for the album art / liner notes. 🄯 (U+1F12F COPYLEFT SYMBOL) is a mirrored © used by free-software and creative-commons communities; per Wikipedia it has no legal meaning on its own and is not a substitute for an explicit license.

Question 7

Accepted Answer

No — under the Berne Convention (adopted 1886, in force in the U.S. since March 1, 1989 via the Berne Convention Implementation Act of 1988), copyright vests automatically upon fixation in every Berne member state. You do not need a © notice to OWN the copyright. However, the U.S. Copyright Office's Circular 3 confirms that a © notice still carries practical legal benefit: per 17 U.S.C. §401(d), a copyright notice on a work means an infringer cannot claim 'innocent infringement' as a partial defense to mitigate damages. That is why nearly every commercial website, photographer portfolio, and software project still includes a © line in the footer — the notice is optional but materially affects what you can recover in litigation.

Question 8

Accepted Answer

Microsoft Word, Outlook, Google Docs, and Apple Pages all ship with a built-in AutoCorrect rule that converts (c) to © on the next keystroke (per the Wikipedia Copyright symbol article: 'Word processing software with an autocorrection facility can recognise this three-character sequence and convert it automatically'). Slack, Notion, Discord, and most chat/note apps do not include this substitution by default — they treat (c) as literal text. To get the same auto-conversion in those apps, set up Text Replacement at the OS level: System Settings > Keyboard > Text Replacements on macOS, or Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement on iOS. The OS-level rule then applies in every app that uses the system keyboard.

How to Make the Copyright Symbol © on Any Device

Symbol Reference14

Copyright Sign (U+00A9)

Sound Recording Copyright (U+2117)

Registered Sign (U+00AE)

Trade Mark Sign (U+2122)

Service Mark (U+2120)

Circled Latin Capital Letter C (U+24B8) — typographic, not legal ©

Circled Latin Small Letter C (U+24D2) — typographic

Parenthesized Latin Capital Letter C (U+1F112)

Negative Circled Latin Capital Letter C (U+1F152)

Negative Squared Latin Capital Letter C (U+1F172)

Copyleft Symbol (U+1F12F) — mirrored ©, no legal meaning

ASCII substitute — accepted by U.S. Copyright Office

ASCII substitute uppercase

Bracketed substitute (informal)

💡Pro Tips

🔧How to Use

🪟How to Make © on Windows

❓Frequently Asked Questions - How to Make the Copyright Symbol

What is the keyboard shortcut to make the copyright symbol © on Windows?

What is the keyboard shortcut to make © on Mac?

How do I make the © symbol on iPhone or Android?

What is the HTML entity for the copyright symbol?

Why does my © appear as 'Â©' or 'Ã‚Â©' when I paste it?

What is the difference between ©, Ⓒ, ℗, and 🄯 — when should I use each?

Do I still need to display © on my website if I'm in a Berne Convention country?

Why does (c) auto-convert to © in Word but not in Slack or Notion?