Mathematical symbol Pi
About this character
The character π is known as Mathematical symbol Pi and carries the Unicode code point U+03C0, which is 960 in decimal. It belongs to the Greek and Coptic block (U+0370–U+03FF), which gathers the modern and ancient Greek alphabet, also widely used as a symbol set in mathematics and physics.
In memory, π takes 2 bytes in UTF-8 (0xCF 0x80) and 1 in UTF-16 (0x03C0). That difference is why badly configured forms or databases garble this character: they assume one byte per character.
How to type π
| System | What to do |
|---|---|
| Windows | In Word or WordPad, type 03C0 and press Alt + X to turn the code into the character. |
| macOS | On a Mac using the ABC/US layout, ⌥ + P produces this character directly. |
| Linux | On Linux (GTK), type Ctrl + ⇧ + U, 03C0 then press Enter. |
| HTML / Web | In an HTML page, write π. Use \03C0 in CSS, \u03C0 in JavaScript and \u03C0 in Python. |
| On this site | The simplest route is the Copy button above: the character goes straight to your clipboard, ready to paste anywhere. |
Keyboards that include π
This character sits directly on the following ClavierVirtuel layouts, where you can click it with the mouse:
Codes and encodings
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Code point | U+03C0 |
| Unicode block | Greek and Coptic (U+0370–U+03FF) |
| Decimal | 960 |
| Hexadecimal | 0x03C0 |
| Octal | 01700 |
| Binary | 1111000000 |
| UTF-8 bytes | 0xCF 0x80 |
| UTF-16 units | 0x03C0 |
| Named HTML entity | π |
| Decimal HTML entity | π |
| Hex HTML entity | π |
| CSS escape | \03C0 |
| JavaScript escape | \u03C0 |
| Python escape | \u03C0 |
| URL encoding | %CF%80 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the Unicode code for π?
Its code point is U+03C0, which is 960 in decimal and 01700 in octal. In HTML you can write it as π or π.
Why does π show up as a box or a question mark?
An empty box means the font has no glyph for U+03C0. The character is still in the text: switching to a font that covers the block (Noto, DejaVu or Segoe UI Symbol) makes it appear.
Can I use π in a filename, a URL or a password?
In a URL it must be encoded as %CF%80. Modern filesystems accept it, though it is still risky when moving files between systems. For passwords, some forms reject non-ASCII characters outright.