U+00B5 · Latin-1 Supplement

Micro Sign µ

The micro sign is the SI prefix meaning one millionth, as in micrometers, microseconds, and micrograms. It looks like the Greek lowercase mu and exists as a separate character for compatibility with older encodings. You will find it on lab reports, medication labels, electronics datasheets, and in scientific papers.

WindowsAlt 230 / 0181

MacOption + M

UnicodeU+00B5

HTMLµ

µU+00B5

Character codes

Unicode code point	`U+00B5`
Decimal	`181`
HTML named entity	`µ`
HTML (hex)	`µ`
HTML (decimal)	`µ`
CSS	`\00B5`
JavaScript	`\u00B5`
Python	`\u00B5`
UTF-8 bytes	`C2 B5`
UTF-16	`00B5`
URL-encoded	`%C2%B5`

Character details

Official name	MICRO SIGN
Unicode block	Latin-1 Supplement
General category	Lowercase Letter (Ll)
SymbolHero category	Letterlike Symbols
Decomposition	`<compat> U+03BC`
Uppercase	Μ Greek Capital Letter Mu
Emoji	No

How to type µ

Windows

Hold Alt and type 230 on the numeric keypad (Num Lock on), then release Alt. Alt 230 uses the code page 437.
Hold Alt and type 0181 on the numeric keypad (Num Lock on), then release Alt. Alt 0181 uses the Windows-1252 code page.
In Microsoft Word or Outlook: type 00B5 then press Alt + X.
Open Character Map (search “Character Map” in Start), tick “Advanced view”, search for “micro sign”, then Select and Copy.

Mac

Press Option + M (US English keyboard layout).
Press Control + Command + Space to open the Character Viewer, search “micro sign”, and double-click the result.
With the Unicode Hex Input keyboard enabled (System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources), hold Option and type 00B5.

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 “micro sign” or enter U+00B5.
HTML: µ or µ
Excel / Google Sheets: =UNICHAR(181)

Examples

Vitamin B12: 2.4 µg
Capacitor: 10 µF
Response time: 250 µs
Particle size: 5 µm

Good to know

Don’t mix it up: Often confused with the Greek small letter mu μ (U+03BC), which looks identical; Unicode normalization (NFKC) converts µ to μ.

Tip: Medical style guides often recommend writing 'mcg' instead of µg on prescriptions, because µ can be misread as m.

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.