How to Type the Hash Symbol (#) on UK, US and Mac Keyboards

How-To Guides · 2 min read · Published October 25, 2026

Quick answer: on a US keyboard press Shift+3. On a UK PC keyboard, # has its own key next to Enter (it also has ~ on it). On a UK Mac, press Option+3. On any Windows PC, Alt+35 on the numeric keypad always works.

Where # is on each keyboard

If # appears where you don't expect it, the layout in your settings probably doesn't match the keyboard in front of you. Switch layouts with Win+Space on Windows or from the input menu on a Mac. More on this in keyboard symbols.

Laptops and compact keyboards

Some UK laptops print # on a small key or share it with another symbol. If you can't find it, Alt+35 needs a numeric keypad, so the simplest fallback is the Windows symbol panel (Win+. → Symbols → punctuation) or copying # from this page. See Alt codes not working for keypad-free options.

Phones

On iPhone tap 123, then #+=; # is on the second symbols page. On Gboard, tap ?123; # is on the first symbols page.

Names for #

• Hash (UK), number sign or pound sign (US, from phone keypads and "#2 pencil").
• Hashtag when used to tag posts on social media.
• Octothorpe, a name from the telephone industry.

Because "pound sign" means # in the US but £ in the UK, say "hash" or "number sign" in international instructions. The £ sign is covered in currency symbols.

# in code and on the web

# starts comments in Python and shell scripts, a fragment in URLs (everything after # is not sent to the server, so encode a literal # as %23), and a heading in Markdown. In HTML, # is its numeric entity.

Frequently asked questions