What the lookup tells you
Every character on a screen is stored as one or more code points, numbers defined by the Unicode Standard. This tool reads each code point in what you paste and reports:
- Name: the official, permanent Unicode name, such as DEGREE SIGN or GRINNING FACE.
- Code point: the U+ number, plus decimal.
- Block and category: where it sits in Unicode and whether it is a letter, mark, number, punctuation, symbol, space or control.
- Version: the Unicode release that added it, which tells you how widely fonts support it.
- Codes: HTML numeric and named references, CSS, JavaScript, Python and Java escapes, UTF-8 and UTF-16 bytes and URL encoding, each one click to copy.
When we have a full guide for the character, with its Windows Alt code, Mac shortcut and phone instructions, the result links to it.
Codes the lookup understands
Type any of these, separated by spaces for more than one: U+1F600, 0x1F600, 1F600, 😀, 😀, &grinning;-style named entities from the HTML entities list, \u00E9, \u{1F600} and \U0001F600. A plain number with at least one digit, such as 2122, is read as hex. Anything else is treated as text to inspect.
Finding invisible characters
Spaces, joiners and direction marks that you cannot see are drawn as labelled boxes, so pasting a username, a spreadsheet cell or a line of code shows exactly which hidden characters it contains. The most common ones:
- Zero width spaceU+200B
- No-break spaceU+00A0
- Zero width joinerU+200D
- Byte order markU+FEFF
- Hangul fillerU+3164
- Braille blankU+2800
- Soft hyphenU+00AD
- Right-to-left overrideU+202E
Need one to copy? The invisible character tool has them ready.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find out what a character is? +
Paste it into the box above. The lookup splits your text into code points and shows the official Unicode name, the code point (U+ number), the block and category, the Unicode version that added it, and every common code for it. It works for emoji, accented letters, symbols and invisible characters alike.
What is a code point? +
A code point is the number Unicode assigns to a character, written as U+ followed by hexadecimal digits: U+00E9 is é and U+1F600 is 😀. Every character in every script has exactly one. Fonts, keyboards and encodings like UTF-8 all refer back to it.
Why does one emoji show several code points? +
Many emoji are sequences. A skin tone adds a modifier (U+1F3FB to U+1F3FF), family and job emoji join several emoji with a zero width joiner (U+200D), and flags pair two regional indicator letters. Your device draws the whole sequence as one picture, but it is stored as several code points.
How can I find hidden or invisible characters in text? +
Paste the text here. Invisible characters such as zero width spaces, no-break spaces, byte order marks and direction marks appear as labelled boxes in the character strip, so you can see exactly where they are and what they are called.
Can I look up a character by its code? +
Yes. Type U+1F600, 0x1F600, 1F600, an HTML reference such as 😀 or 😀 or &grinning;, or an escape such as \u00E9 or \u{1F600}. Separate several codes with spaces to look them all up at once.
Which Unicode version does this use? +
Unicode 18.0, generated directly from the Unicode Character Database. Characters added in newer versions than your device supports will show as boxes until your system fonts are updated.