By Igor R. · Updated September 2026 Tested on Windows 11, macOS, iOS, Android, ChromeOS, Excel, Google Sheets and Linux. Symbol code points follow the Unicode Standard.
Short answer: Press Shift + 4. That works on US, UK, German, Spanish and most other keyboard layouts. On French AZERTY, $ has its own key to the right of ù — press it unshifted.
Tap to copy
Need a different currency? The Alt Code Finder gives you the Windows, Mac and HTML method for every currency sign at once.
Dollar sign quick reference
| Symbol | Name | Unicode | HTML | Windows | Mac |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
$ | Dollar sign | U+0024 | $ or $ | Shift + 4 | Shift + 4 |
＄ | Fullwidth dollar sign | U+FF04 | ＄ | Type FF04 then Alt + X | Character Viewer |
﹩ | Small dollar sign | U+FE69 | ﹩ | Type FE69 then Alt + X | Character Viewer |
💲 | Heavy dollar sign (emoji) | U+1F4B2 | 💲 | Win + . → search "dollar" | Ctrl + Cmd + Space |
The dollar sign is ASCII character 36, which is why it sits on a physical key on essentially every keyboard sold. You almost never need a code for it — but you do need the codes for the three lookalikes above, because those are the ones that show up in pasted text and quietly break things.
Where the $ key lives on each layout
Because $ is ASCII, it appears on every layout — just not always in the same place.
| Layout | How to type $ |
|---|---|
| US / UK / Canadian | Shift + 4 |
| German QWERTZ | Shift + 4 |
| Spanish / Latin American | Shift + 4 |
| Italian | Shift + 4 |
| French AZERTY | The $ key, right of ù — no Shift |
| Swiss (French/German) | Shift + 4 |
On French AZERTY that same key gives £ with Shift and ¤ (the generic currency sign) with AltGr, which is where a lot of accidental ¤ characters in French documents come from.
Windows
Just press Shift + 4. If you want a code anyway:
- Alt code: hold Alt and type 36 on the numeric keypad.
Alt + 036andAlt + 0036also work. - Hex method: type
24, then press Alt + X (Word and Outlook only).
The dollar sign is one of the few characters where the CP437 versus Windows-1252 Alt code split doesn't matter. Codes below 128 are identical in both encodings, so leading zeros make no difference here — unlike Alt + 236 (∞) versus Alt + 0236 (ì), where they change the character completely.
Mac
Press Shift + 4. For the variants, open the Character Viewer with Ctrl + Cmd + Space and search "dollar" — that returns the fullwidth, small and heavy dollar signs together.
There is no Option shortcut for ＄ or ﹩. If you need them regularly, enable Unicode Hex Input (System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources), then hold Option and type FF04.
iPhone, Android and Chromebook
- iPhone / iPad: tap 123, then
$. Press and hold$to get a picker with¢ £ € ¥ ₩. - Android: tap ?123, then
$. Long-press for the same currency picker. - Chromebook: Shift + 4. For variants, use Ctrl + Shift + U, then type
ff04, then Enter or Space.
The dollar sign in Excel and Google Sheets
This is where $ stops being a currency symbol and becomes a piece of syntax — and where most dollar sign problems actually come from.
In a formula, $ locks part of a cell reference so it doesn't shift when you copy the formula:
| Reference | What's locked | Copies as |
|---|---|---|
A1 | Nothing | Column and row both move |
$A$1 | Column and row | Always points at A1 |
A$1 | Row only | Column moves, row stays |
$A1 | Column only | Row moves, column stays |
Cycle through all four with F4 on Windows. In Excel for Mac, use ⌘ + T or fn + F4 — plain F4 is often intercepted by macOS. Google Sheets uses F4 on both platforms.
One quirk worth knowing: type $5 into an empty cell and Excel doesn't store the dollar sign as text. It stores the number 5 and applies currency formatting. That's why =LEN(A1) on a cell showing $5 returns 1, not 2. To store a real dollar character, format the cell as Text first, or build the string with ="$"&A1. More in our guide to symbols in Excel.
Escaping $ in code
In several languages $ is a reserved character, so a literal dollar sign has to be escaped.
| Context | What $ means | Literal $ |
|---|---|---|
| Regex | End-of-string anchor | \$ |
| Bash / shell | Variable expansion | \$ or wrap in single quotes |
| LaTeX | Math mode delimiter | \$ |
| JavaScript template literal | ${...} interpolation | \$ before { |
| PHP | Variable prefix | \$ inside double quotes |
The bash case catches people most often: echo "Cost: $5" prints Cost: because $5 is read as a positional parameter. Use 'Cost: $5' or echo "Cost: \$5" instead.
Which dollar? Disambiguating currencies
More than twenty currencies use $, so the bare symbol is ambiguous in anything international. Standard practice is a country prefix:
| Prefix | Currency | ISO code |
|---|---|---|
US$ | United States dollar | USD |
CA$ or C$ | Canadian dollar | CAD |
A$ or AU$ | Australian dollar | AUD |
NZ$ | New Zealand dollar | NZD |
HK$ | Hong Kong dollar | HKD |
S$ | Singapore dollar | SGD |
R$ | Brazilian real | BRL |
NT$ | New Taiwan dollar | TWD |
For invoices and contracts, the ISO 4217 code (USD 1,250.00) removes the ambiguity entirely. See invoice currency symbols for the formatting conventions.
Two symbols get mistaken for dollar variants and aren't: ₱ is the peso sign (U+20B1), and ₡ is officially the colon sign (U+20A1) — the Costa Rican colón, unrelated to the punctuation colon.
One stroke or two?
You'll see the dollar sign drawn with one vertical stroke ($) or two. Both are the same character, U+0024 — the difference is typeface, not encoding. The two-stroke form, called the cifrão, is conventional in Portuguese-language typography, but there is no separate code point for it. If your font renders one stroke and you need two, that's a font choice, not a character choice.
The popular origin story — that $ is a U superimposed on an S for "United States" — is folk etymology. The symbol predates the US dollar and derives from the Spanish peso, abbreviated ps, with the p and s gradually merging in handwriting.
Accessibility
Screen readers announce $ as "dollar," and most will read $5 as "five dollars" by reordering it correctly. The variants are less friendly: ＄ is announced as "fullwidth dollar sign" by NVDA and JAWS, which is noise in the middle of a sentence.
Use plain $ in body text. Reserve 💲 for decorative contexts, and give it a text equivalent — as a standalone emoji it reads as "heavy dollar sign," which tells a listener nothing about price. More on this in how screen readers pronounce symbols.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
Shift + 4 gives " or ' | Wrong keyboard layout active | Windows: Win + Space. Mac: Ctrl + Space |
Pasted $ looks too wide | It's ＄ U+FF04 from a CJK input method | Find and replace ＄ with $ |
$ disappears in bash output | Read as a variable | Escape as \$ or use single quotes |
Regex won't match a literal $ | It's the end-of-string anchor | Escape as \$ |
=LEN() returns the wrong length | Excel stored a number with currency formatting | Format as Text, or use ="$"&A1 |
| F4 does nothing in Excel for Mac | macOS intercepts the key | Use ⌘ + T or fn + F4 |
$ shows as a box or tofu | Font lacks the glyph — rare for $, common for ＄ | Switch font, or use plain $ |
| Sheets formula breaks when copied | Reference wasn't locked | Add $ before column, row, or both |
Recap
- Typing it: Shift + 4 everywhere except French AZERTY, where it's its own unshifted key.
- In Excel:
$locks references. F4 on Windows, ⌘ + T on Mac. - In code: escape it as
\$. - In pasted text: if it looks wide, it's
＄U+FF04 — replace it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I type the dollar sign on my keyboard?
Press Shift + 4 on US, UK, German, Spanish and most other layouts. On French AZERTY, the dollar sign has its own key to the right of ù and is typed without Shift.
What is the Alt code for the dollar sign?
Hold Alt and type 36 on the numeric keypad. Alt + 036 and Alt + 0036 produce the same character, because codes below 128 are identical in CP437 and Windows-1252.
What does $ mean in an Excel formula?
It locks part of a cell reference so it doesn't change when you copy the formula. $A$1 locks both column and row, A$1 locks only the row, and $A1 locks only the column. Press F4 to cycle through the options.
Why does my pasted dollar sign look too wide?
It's the fullwidth dollar sign, U+FF04, which comes from Chinese, Japanese and Korean input methods. Use find and replace to swap it for the standard dollar sign, U+0024.
Does the dollar sign have one stroke or two?
Both forms are the same Unicode character, U+0024. The two-stroke version, known as the cifrão, is a typeface variant used in Portuguese-language typography. There is no separate code point for it.
How do I write a literal dollar sign in code?
Escape it with a backslash as $. This applies in regular expressions, where $ is the end-of-string anchor, in bash, where it starts a variable, and in LaTeX, where it opens math mode.
Written by Igor R. Tested on Windows 11, macOS, iOS, Android, ChromeOS, Excel, Google Sheets and Linux. Last updated September 2026. Symbol code points follow the Unicode Standard.