What ₹ means, its 2010 design story, and how to type it — click to copy.
Click to copy · U+20B9
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Character | ₹ |
| Unicode code point | U+20B9 |
| Unicode name | INDIAN RUPEE SIGN |
| Unicode block | Currency Symbols |
| Category | Currency symbol |
| Adopted | 2010 |
Unlike currency symbols that evolved gradually through centuries of handwriting, ₹ has an unusually well-documented, deliberate origin. The Indian government ran an open public design competition in 2009–2010 specifically to give the rupee its own dedicated symbol, distinct from the plain "Rs." abbreviation used until then. D. Udaya Kumar, a postgraduate from IIT Guwahati, won the contest, and the design was officially adopted by the Indian government in 2010.
The winning design fuses the Devanagari letter "र" (ra, the first sound of "rupee") with the Latin capital letter R, topped by two parallel horizontal lines. Those lines are widely read as a nod to the Indian national flag and, following a common currency-symbol convention, as an echo of the equals sign — meant to suggest economic equality and balance.
| Platform | Works? |
|---|---|
| Instagram bio / caption | Yes |
| Discord | Yes |
| TikTok display name | Yes |
| Yes | |
| Roblox / PlayStation / Xbox username | No — alphanumeric only |
| Method | Input |
|---|---|
| Windows (Word) | Type 20B9 then press Alt+X |
| Mac | No dedicated Option-key combo — use Character Viewer or copy from this page |
| HTML entity | ₹ (no short named entity) |
| CSS content | content: "\20B9" |
₹ is one of dozens of world currency symbols in the full currency symbols library.
Browse Currency Symbols →D. Udaya Kumar, a postgraduate from IIT Guwahati, won an open public design competition run by the Indian government in 2009–2010. The symbol was officially adopted in 2010, making it one of the few major currency symbols created through a public contest rather than evolving organically.
It blends the Devanagari letter "र" (ra, for rupee) with the Latin capital R, topped by two parallel horizontal lines. The lines are meant to evoke the Indian national flag and echo the equals sign, symbolizing economic equality.
It falls outside the simple four-digit Windows Alt-code range, so the easiest options are the Alt+X hex method in Word (type 20B9 then press Alt+X) or copying it directly from a reference page. In HTML, use ₹ — there's no short named entity like €.