Unicode Character Explorer

Search the Unicode standard for any character: by name (“heart” → ❤), by code point (U+2764), by the character itself (paste it in). Each result shows the canonical name, code point in hex, UTF-8 bytes, UTF-16 surrogates, HTML entity, decimal value, and the block / script the character belongs to.

How to use the Unicode Character Explorer

Type a character name (“heart,” “arrow,” “star”), a code point (U+2764 or 2764), the character itself (❤), or an HTML entity (♥). Filter by block to browse families of related characters (Mathematical Operators, Box Drawing, Emoticons, etc.). Each match shows the full info you need to use the character in any context.

About Unicode Character Explorer

Unicode assigns a unique code point to every character in every writing system in active use, plus a huge collection of symbols, dingbats, mathematical operators, technical symbols, and emoji. The standard currently has over 150,000 code points across more than 100 blocks. Knowing which code point corresponds to which character is essential for anything involving text — displaying it correctly, sorting it, normalizing it, searching it, or embedding it in code where the literal character is awkward (\u0027 instead of a typed apostrophe).

The browser already ships with most of Unicode in its system fonts (whatever your OS provides). This explorer surfaces the metadata: the canonical Unicode name (assigned by the Unicode Consortium), the bytes you’d see if you UTF-8-encoded it, the surrogates for UTF-16. The HTML entity column shows named entities where available (most common ones), plus the numeric entity (always available).

Common use cases

  • Finding a symbol — search “checkmark” for the right tick mark.
  • Code escape lookup — get the \uXXXX escape for embedding in source code.
  • HTML entity reference — find the right entity for typographic chars (curly quotes, em-dash, ellipsis).
  • Debugging mojibake — see what code point a mystery character actually is.

Frequently asked questions

Does it have every Unicode character?
This tool ships with the most commonly-referenced characters from each block (~3,000 entries). For full coverage (every code point with name), the official Unicode CharDB is the authoritative source.

What's the difference between code point and UTF-8?
The code point is the abstract identifier (U+2764). UTF-8 is the byte encoding when stored or transmitted \xE2\x80\x94 the same code point becomes a sequence of 1-4 bytes depending on the value.

Why are some block names so cryptic?
They're Unicode Consortium official block names. Some are descriptive (\xE2\x80\x9CMiscellaneous Symbols\xE2\x80\x9D), others reference the historical context (\xE2\x80\x9CLatin-1 Supplement,\xE2\x80\x9D \xE2\x80\x9CCJK Unified Ideographs\xE2\x80\x9D).