Cent sign ¢

• After the number, no space: 5¢, 25¢, 99¢.
• Only for amounts under a dollar. From $1 up, use the dollar sign: $1.25, not 125¢.
• Never combine symbols: “$0.99¢” and “0.99¢” are both wrong. The second one literally means less than one cent.
• In running text: AP style spells out “cents” with figures (5 cents, 12 cents), so ¢ appears mostly on signs, price tags and menus.

The 0.99¢ mistake shows up on real signs and vending machines, and it confuses readers. When in doubt, write $0.99 or 99 cents.

• ₵ (cedi sign) is the currency symbol of Ghana. It looks very similar to ¢, so don’t use it for cents.
• ￠ (fullwidth cent sign) is for East Asian fullwidth text.
• $ (dollar sign) also has a vertical stroke, which is why the two get mixed up in handwriting.

The ¢ was a regular key on many US typewriters. ASCII, the character set early computers standardized on, has no cent sign, so it never made it onto the standard computer keyboard. That is why typing ¢ today takes a shortcut or a copy and paste.

In data, avoid the symbol entirely: store prices as numbers in dollars (0.99) or in whole cents (99) and add ¢ only when you display them.

The Windows Alt code and the Mac shortcut are in the table above. A few more options:

• Word for Windows: press Ctrl+/ and then c.
• Mac Character Viewer: Control+Command+Space, then search “cent.”
• Phones: copy it from this page and save a text replacement such as “cnts” → ¢ in your keyboard settings.
• LaTeX: \textcent.
• Spreadsheets: keep amounts numeric and use a custom number format if you want the sign displayed.