U+00A1 · Latin-1 Supplement

Inverted Exclamation Mark ¡

The inverted exclamation mark opens an exclamation in Spanish, so the reader knows from the first word that the sentence is emphatic; the normal exclamation mark closes it. It is also used in Galician and some Asturian writing. Because English has no equivalent, it is one of the characters Spanish learners and bilingual marketers most often need to copy.

WindowsAlt 173 / 0161

MacOption + 1

UnicodeU+00A1

HTML¡

¡U+00A1

Character codes

Unicode code point	`U+00A1`
Decimal	`161`
HTML named entity	`¡`
HTML (hex)	`¡`
HTML (decimal)	`¡`
CSS	`\00A1`
JavaScript	`\u00A1`
Python	`\u00A1`
UTF-8 bytes	`C2 A1`
UTF-16	`00A1`
URL-encoded	`%C2%A1`

Character details

Official name	INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK
Unicode block	Latin-1 Supplement
General category	Other Punctuation (Po)
SymbolHero category	Punctuation
Emoji	No

How to type ¡

Windows

Hold Alt and type 173 on the numeric keypad (Num Lock on), then release Alt. Alt 173 uses the code page 437.
Hold Alt and type 0161 on the numeric keypad (Num Lock on), then release Alt. Alt 0161 uses the Windows-1252 code page.
In Microsoft Word or Outlook: type 00A1 then press Alt + X.
Open Character Map (search “Character Map” in Start), tick “Advanced view”, search for “inverted exclamation mark”, then Select and Copy.

Mac

Press Option + 1 (US English keyboard layout).
Press Control + Command + Space to open the Character Viewer, search “inverted exclamation mark”, and double-click the result.
With the Unicode Hex Input keyboard enabled (System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources), hold Option and type 00A1.

iPhone & Android

Tap Copy at the top of this page, then long-press where you want it and choose Paste.

Docs & web

Google Docs: Insert → Special characters, then search “inverted exclamation mark” or enter U+00A1.
HTML: ¡ or ¡
Excel / Google Sheets: =UNICHAR(161)

Examples

¡Hola, amigos!
¡Feliz cumpleaños!
¡Qué sorpresa!
¡Oferta especial hoy!

Good to know

Don’t mix it up: Often confused with the lowercase letter i (U+0069) in some sans-serif fonts; the inverted mark hangs below the baseline, while i sits on it.

Tip: In Spanish the opening mark goes where the exclamation actually begins, which may be mid-sentence: 'Si vienes, ¡trae pan!'.

Display: the character itself is always the same code point, but its shape comes from the font on the device showing it. If you see an empty box, the font lacks this glyph—the text is still correct.