If you’re wondering how to type the copyright symbol on a Mac, the solution is quick and easy. Mac keyboards come with built-in shortcuts for special characters, including the copyright symbol.

The copyright symbol © shows that your work is protected by copyright law. You can put it in blog posts, documents, or any other type of creative work. It shows people that your work belongs to you.

Some people also add the year and their name next to it, for example:

© 2025 John Doe

This makes it even clearer who owns the content and when it was created. However, the symbol by itself may not be enough to fully protect your rights in all situations — it’s best to include clear terms and conditions for your website or publications, and seek professional legal advice if you need comprehensive protection.

To type the © symbol on a Mac, simply press:

Option (⌥) + G

That’s all you need to do! This shortcut works across most apps on macOS — whether you’re writing in Pages, Word, Google Docs, or even in your browser.

If you are new to Mac and do not know the Option key: it is next to the Command (⌘) key. On most keyboards, there is one Option key on the left side and one on the right side.

If the shortcut mentioned above doesn’t work, you can use the Character Viewer:

  • Press Control + Command + Space
  • Search for “copyright”
  • Double-click the symbol to insert it.

Mac has shortcut for many symbols. There are some you might also like:

  • Trademark (™) – Press Option (⌥) + 2
  • Registered Trademark (®) — Press Option (⌥) + R
  • Degree (°) — Press Shift + Option (⌥) + 8
  • Ellipsis (…) — Press Option (⌥) + ;
  • Section (§) — Press Option (⌥) + 6

These shortcuts work almost everywhere on macOS. If you forget them, you can either open the Character Viewer and search for the symbol you want or bookmark this post.

Extra tips for Mac beginners#

When I first switched from Ubuntu Linux to macOS, I felt a bit lost. Many things were different. On Linux, I used different key combinations for special characters, and sometimes I had to copy and paste them. On Mac, once I learned the shortcuts, my work became faster. You might be in the same situation — maybe not from Ubuntu, but perhaps you are coming from Windows? Or maybe you are just a newcomer to the computer world.

Regardless, these simple, everyday shortcuts might also help you:

  • Command + C to copy
  • Command + V to paste
  • Command + Z to undo
  • Command + Shift + 4 to take a screenshot of a selected area

“But Option + G doesn’t do anything on my Mac!” 😩#

If you pressed it and got nothing — or got a different character entirely — you’re not doing it wrong. These shortcuts belong to your keyboard layout, not to macOS.

The Option key doesn’t have a fixed meaning. It switches your keyboard to a second, hidden layer of characters, and what sits on that layer is decided by the input source you’re using. The shortcuts in this post are the ones on the standard U.S. / ABC layout. Switch to a British, German or Greek layout and the same keys produce different symbols.

There’s a lovely way to see this for yourself rather than guessing. Open System Settings → Keyboard, turn on the input menu in the menu bar, then choose Show Keyboard Viewer from that menu. An on-screen keyboard appears — and when you hold down Option, every key relabels itself to show what it will actually type.

Hold Option and look for the ©. Whatever key it’s sitting on is your answer, whichever layout you’re using. That one trick replaces every shortcut list on the internet, this one included.

Also worth knowing: the near-miss almost everyone tries first is Option + C, which on the U.S. layout gives you ç, not ©. If that’s what you’ve been getting, you’re one key away.

Teach your Mac to do it for you ⌨️#

If you type © often enough to be reading this, stop memorising and let macOS handle it. Text Replacement turns any string you choose into any character you like:

  1. Open System Settings → Keyboard, then Text Replacements.
  2. Click +.
  3. Under Replace, type something you’d never write by accident — (c) works nicely.
  4. Under With, paste ©.

Now typing (c) anywhere becomes © as you go. The best part is that these replacements sync through iCloud, so the shortcut you just made on your Mac also works on your iPhone and iPad — which is handy, because there’s no Option key to press over there.

The same trick works for anything fiddly you type repeatedly: --em for an em dash, (tm) for ™, your email address behind two keystrokes.

Typing © in HTML and CSS 👨‍💻#

Since a fair few of us are here to put a copyright line in a website footer, it’s worth knowing you have options beyond the keyboard.

In HTML, all three of these render the same character:

<p>&copy; 2026 Little Coding Things</p>
<p>© 2026 Little Coding Things</p>
<p>&#xA9; 2026 Little Coding Things</p>

&copy; is the named entity, &#169; is the decimal code, and &#xA9; is the hexadecimal version of the same Unicode code point — U+00A9.

In CSS, when you want the symbol generated rather than written into the markup, use the escaped code point:

.footer::after {
  content: "\00A9 2026 Little Coding Things";
}

And honestly? On any modern page you can simply paste the © character directly into your HTML. Entities exist for the days when encoding was unreliable; with a UTF-8 charset declared — which every modern framework does for you — the literal character is fine and is easier to read in the source.

Frequently asked questions#

What’s the difference between ©, ™ and ®?#

Very roughly: © is used for creative works like text, images, music and code. ™ and ® are for brand names and logos, with ® conventionally reserved for marks that have actually been registered. If any of it matters commercially, that’s a question for a lawyer rather than a keyboard shortcut post.

How do I type © on an iPhone or iPad?#

There’s no Option key, so the neat route is the Text Replacement trick above — set it up once on your Mac and it syncs to your other devices through iCloud. On the iPhone itself, you’ll find the same setting under Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement.

Hold Alt and type 0169 on the numeric keypad. It needs the separate number pad, not the row of numbers above the letters — which is why it catches out laptop users. Windows also has an emoji and symbol picker on Windows key + . that includes it.

Does the © symbol still work if I copy and paste it?#

Yes. It’s an ordinary Unicode character, so copying it from this page into your document, your code, or your Text Replacement setting works perfectly. There’s nothing special about typing it with a shortcut versus pasting it — you get the identical character either way.

Where can I find symbols that have no shortcut at all?#

Control + Command + Space opens the Character Viewer, which has everything — arrows, maths symbols, currency, emoji — with a search box. It’s layout-proof, so it’s also the reliable fallback when an Option shortcut isn’t working on your keyboard.

I’m a new Mac user and have been having questions about shortcuts, processes, and other little details in macOS since I switched from Ubuntu Linux. I started adding these posts to help me remember — and hopefully, they’ll help you too.

Keep reading#