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German keyboard online

Click a letter to add it to the text box and copy it. Every German accent and special letter is here, with the codes to type them yourself.

Größe, Straße, über, schön.

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Windows
German
Mac
German or ABC Extended
iPhone
German
Android
German
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Lowercase

Uppercase

Punctuation & symbols

About German letters

German needs the three umlauts ä, ö, ü and the eszett ß. Capital ẞ exists since 2017 but SS is still accepted.

If you cannot type an umlaut, the spelling ae, oe, ue and ss is an accepted substitute.

On a Mac, Option+U then the vowel gives the umlaut; Option+S gives ß. The German layout (QWERTZ) has ä, ö, ü as dedicated keys.

German letters: names and codes

Every special letter in German, with the Windows Alt code where one exists, the hex code to type in Word followed by Alt+X, the Mac shortcut and the HTML entity. Click a letter to copy it.

Letter Name Unicode Alt code Word (Alt+X) Mac Word shortcut HTML
A with Diaeresis U+00E4 Alt+0228 00E4 Option+U, A Ctrl+Shift+:, a ä
O with Diaeresis U+00F6 Alt+0246 00F6 Option+U, O Ctrl+Shift+:, o ö
U with Diaeresis U+00FC Alt+0252 00FC Option+U, U Ctrl+Shift+:, u ü
Eszett (sharp s) U+00DF Alt+0223 00DF Option+S Ctrl+Shift+&, s ß
Capital A with Diaeresis U+00C4 Alt+0196 00C4 Option+U, Shift+A Ctrl+Shift+:, Shift+A Ä
Capital O with Diaeresis U+00D6 Alt+0214 00D6 Option+U, Shift+O Ctrl+Shift+:, Shift+O Ö
Capital U with Diaeresis U+00DC Alt+0220 00DC Option+U, Shift+U Ctrl+Shift+:, Shift+U Ü

How to switch your keyboard to German

Windows

Open Settings → Time & Language → Language & region, add German (or open the options for your language and add the German keyboard). Switch layouts with Win+Space. The current layout is shown next to the clock.

Mac

Open System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources → Edit, click +, and add German or ABC Extended. Switch with Control+Space or from the input menu in the menu bar. Turn on Show Input menu in menu bar to see which layout is active.

iPhone and iPad

Open Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard and choose German. Switch by holding the globe key on the keyboard.

Android

In Gboard, open Settings → Languages → Add keyboard and choose German. Switch by holding the space bar or tapping the globe key.

Frequently asked questions

How do I type German letters on an English keyboard? +

Press and hold the base letter on a Mac or phone to see accented versions, use the Option dead keys on a Mac, the US-International layout or Alt codes on Windows, or click the letters on this page to build your text and copy it.

Which keyboard layout should I add for German? +

Windows: German. Mac: German or ABC Extended. iPhone: German. Android (Gboard): German.

Will German characters copied from here work in Word, Google Docs and social media? +

Yes. They are standard Unicode characters, so they paste as real text into any app that supports Unicode, which includes Word, Docs, Excel, WhatsApp, Instagram and email.

Do German letters have Alt codes? +

Many do. The table on this page lists the Windows Alt code for each letter that has one; letters without a code can be typed in Word by entering the Unicode hex value and pressing Alt+X.

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