Superscript & Subscript — Copy and Paste (² ³ ₂ ₃ ⁿ)

Superscript & subscript.

Raised and lowered digits and signs — for squares, formulas and footnotes.

Tap any symbol to copy it.

Superscript

Subscript

Common raised marks

Raised and lowered characters

Superscript and subscript characters let you write things like x², m³, the ⁿ in an exponent, or the subscripts in a chemical formula such as H₂O and CO₂ — in plain text, without any special formatting. That makes them handy in spreadsheet headers, social posts, filenames and chat, where you can't apply true superscript styling. They're a fixed set of precomposed characters, so only the digits and a few signs exist; for arbitrary raised text in a document, your editor's actual superscript/subscript formatting (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+= and +,) is the better tool. The trademark (™), registered (®) and degree (°) marks are the most-copied of the bunch.

Which characters actually exist

This is a precomposed set, not a formatting style, so coverage is uneven and there is nothing you can do about the gaps.

Superscript digits 0–9 all exist, but they come from two different eras of the standard: ¹ ² ³ are U+00B9, U+00B2 and U+00B3, while ⁰ and ⁴–⁹ live at U+2070 and U+2074–U+2079. Older fonts sometimes style the first three differently from the rest, which is why x¹² can look slightly mismatched.
Subscript digits ₀–₉ are a tidy consecutive block at U+2080–U+2089.
Signs exist in both forms: ⁺ ⁻ ⁼ ⁽ ⁾ and ₊ ₋ ₌ ₍ ₎.
Letters are the incomplete part. Superscript has most of the lowercase alphabet including ⁿ (U+207F), but subscript has only a handful — ₐ ₑ ₕ ᵢ ⱼ ₖ ₗ ₘ ₙ ₒ ₚ ᵣ ₛ ₜ ᵤ ᵥ ₓ — with no b, c, d, f, g, q, w, y or z.

The gaps exist because these characters were encoded for phonetics and mathematics rather than as a general formatting mechanism.

When to use real formatting instead

Use these characters when the text has to survive as plain text: a spreadsheet header, a filename, a chat message, a social bio, a commit message, an email subject line. Nothing there can carry styling, so a precomposed ² is the only option.

Use your editor's actual superscript formatting anywhere styling survives — a Word or Google Docs document, a web page, a slide deck. It covers every character rather than a partial set, scales properly with the font, and stays correct if the text is later resized or restyled. In HTML that is <sup> and <sub>; in Word and Docs, Ctrl + Shift + = and Ctrl + , (use Command on a Mac).

Search and screen readers

There is a real trade-off. Precomposed characters are opaque to plain text matching: searching a document for "CO2" will not find "CO₂", and sorting treats them as unrelated characters. If the text needs to be findable, spell it out and use real formatting.

Screen reader behaviour also varies — some announce ² as "superscript two", others as "two", and some skip it. For anything where the distinction matters scientifically or medically, put the meaning in the surrounding text rather than relying on the character alone.

FAQ

How do I write H₂O or x² in plain text?

Copy the subscript ₂ or superscript ² above and place it after the letter. These are real characters, so they work in fields that don't support formatting — unlike the editor's superscript button, which only works in that document.

Why isn't there a superscript for every letter?

Unicode only defines a limited set of superscript and subscript characters — mainly digits, a few signs and ⁿ. For full raised or lowered text you need your editor's superscript/subscript formatting.

Why is there no subscript for every letter?

Because these are precomposed characters encoded for phonetics and mathematics, not a general formatting system. Subscript covers only about fifteen letters and has no b, c, d, f, g, q, w, y or z. For arbitrary text use your editor's real subscript formatting instead.

Should I use superscript characters or formatting?

Use the characters where styling cannot survive — spreadsheet headers, filenames, chat, social bios. Use real formatting in documents and on the web, since it covers every character, scales with the font and stays correct if the text is restyled.

Why does searching for CO2 not find CO₂?

Because ₂ is a different character from the digit 2, so plain text matching treats them as unrelated. If the text needs to be searchable, write it out normally and apply real subscript formatting rather than using the precomposed character.