Unicode Character Lookup
100% private — runs on your device, never uploaded. Works offline once loaded.
Paste any characters to see each one's Unicode code point (U+XXXX), block name, HTML entity and decimal value — or enter a code point to get the character back. Everything runs locally in your browser.
Code points, not bytes
Every character in Unicode has a single number called a code point, written in hexadecimal with a U+ prefix — U+0041 for 'A', U+00E9 for 'é', U+1F600 for a grinning face. That number is the character's permanent identity, independent of how it is stored on disk. This tool reads the code point of each character you paste and shows it alongside its decimal value and HTML entity.
Importantly, it iterates by code point, not by JavaScript's UTF-16 code units, so characters beyond the Basic Multilingual Plane — most emoji, for instance — are reported as one character with one code point rather than a broken pair of surrogates.
Names, blocks and general categories
The full Unicode standard assigns a unique name to roughly 150,000 characters, which is far too large to ship in a lightweight browser tool. Instead this lookup derives the Unicode block each code point belongs to — Basic Latin, Latin-1 Supplement, Greek and Coptic, Cyrillic, Arabic, CJK Unified Ideographs, Emoticons, and many more — which tells you at a glance what family a character comes from.
On top of that it names the characters people most often need identified but cannot see: control characters and invisible whitespace such as NULL, Tab, Line Feed, Carriage Return, the ordinary Space, and the sneaky No-Break Space (U+00A0) that so often breaks layouts and string comparisons.
HTML entities and reverse lookup
For web work, the tool gives you an HTML entity for every character. Where a well-known named entity exists — ©, , — — it uses that; otherwise it produces a numeric entity like € that works in any HTML document. Copy it straight into markup to render a character without relying on the source file's encoding.
The reverse lookup runs the other direction: type a code point as U+1F600, 1F600 or 0x263A and it returns the actual character plus its block name, entity and decimal value. It is the fastest way to answer 'what character is this code point?' without opening a full character map.
Practical uses
Character lookup is a debugging staple. When a string comparison mysteriously fails, an invisible character — a no-break space, a zero-width joiner, or a smart quote pasted from a word processor — is often to blame, and seeing every code point makes the culprit obvious.
- Hunting down invisible or look-alike characters that break parsing or comparisons
- Finding the HTML entity or code point for a symbol you need in markup
- Identifying which script or emoji block an unfamiliar character belongs to
- Confirming how a string decomposes into code points, including multi-byte emoji
Frequently asked questions
How do I write a Unicode code point?
Use U+ followed by the hexadecimal value, such as U+0041 for A or U+1F600 for an emoji. In this tool's reverse field you can also enter a bare hex value like 1F600 or a 0x-prefixed one.
Why does the tool show a block name instead of the exact character name?
The full Unicode name database covers about 150,000 characters, which is too large for a fast in-browser tool. It derives the Unicode block plus names for common control and whitespace characters, which identifies a character in practice.
Can it handle emoji and other characters beyond U+FFFF?
Yes. It reads full code points rather than UTF-16 units, so emoji and other supplementary-plane characters are shown correctly as a single character with one code point.
What is the difference between the decimal and the code point?
They are the same number in different bases. U+0041 is hexadecimal; its decimal form is 65. The tool shows both so you can use whichever your context needs.
How do I find an invisible character in my text?
Paste the text into the inspect box. Every character, including spaces, tabs, and no-break or zero-width characters, gets its own row with a code point, so an unexpected entry reveals the hidden character.
Is the text I paste kept private?
Yes. Every lookup is computed locally in your browser and nothing is uploaded or stored.
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