The superscript converter turns ordinary text into small, raised Unicode characters that sit above the baseline. Because these are genuine Unicode code points rather than a font effect, the result can be copied into footnotes, exponents, ordinals, and bios on platforms that do not support rich text formatting.
How it works
Each character is looked up in a table of Unicode superscript code points. Digits map cleanly: 0→⁰ (U+2070), 1→¹ (U+00B9), 2→², and so on. Most lowercase letters have a superscript modifier-letter form, such as a→ᵃ (U+1D43) and n→ⁿ (U+207F). Uppercase letters are folded to lowercase before lookup. Any character without a superscript equivalent — including the letter q, spaces, and most punctuation — passes through unchanged so the text stays legible.
Why Unicode superscripts, not HTML or CSS?
HTML <sup> tags and CSS vertical-align: super both produce visually raised text, but only inside environments that render HTML — web pages and email clients that honour rich text. The moment you paste into a plain-text field, a social media bio, a Slack message, a spreadsheet cell, or a URL path, those tags disappear and you see raw angled brackets.
Unicode superscripts are different: they are actual characters, encoded in the text itself. The character ² is not “the digit 2 displayed small and high” — it is a distinct code point (U+00B2) that renders as a superscript in any font that includes it, which includes virtually every modern font. That means the raised text survives copying, pasting, and transmission through any plain-text channel.
Worked examples
| Input | Output | Use case |
|---|---|---|
x2 | ˣ² | Mathematical exponent in a plain-text message |
1st | ¹ˢᵗ | Ordinal indicator in a bio or username |
CO2 | CO² | Chemical formula for carbon dioxide |
H2O | H²O | Note: chemical subscripts (₂) are a better fit — use the subscript converter |
note1 | noteᵈ | Inline footnote marker in a document |
(c) | ⁽ᶜ⁾ | Raised parenthetical reference |
Notice that H2O raises the 2, which looks wrong for water — the correct notation puts the number below the baseline as a subscript. Use this tool for raised text and the subscript converter for lowered text.
Coverage: which characters have superscript forms
Digits: 0–9 all have Unicode superscript forms (⁰ ¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹).
Lowercase letters: Most of the alphabet is covered. Letters with well-established Unicode superscript forms include a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z. A few letters (most notably q) have no standard Unicode superscript code point and pass through unchanged.
Uppercase letters: Unicode has relatively few uppercase superscript forms. The tool folds uppercase to lowercase before looking up the superscript, so A→ᵃ, B→ᵇ, and so on. Letters that pass through include Q (no lowercase superscript equivalent) and letters where the lowercase also lacks a superscript form.
Symbols: +→⁺, -→⁻, =→⁼, (→⁽, )→⁾. Most other punctuation passes through unchanged.
Practical uses
- Social media bios and usernames: platforms that strip HTML still render Unicode superscripts correctly.
- Footnote markers in plain-text documents: a raised
¹is cleaner than writing[1]inline. - Ordinals:
1ˢᵗ,2ⁿᵈ,3ʳᵈ,4ᵗʰ— typographically correct and pasted as plain text. - Chemical or physics notation: quick rendering of exponents in contexts where LaTeX or MathML are not available.
- Trademark-style decoration: raised letters like
ᵀᴹalongside a product name in a plain-text field.