How to Type î (I with circumflex) on Excel

Published August 18, 2026, 2 min read

The letter î does not have its own key on an English keyboard, but Excel still makes it easy to type. Use =UNICHAR(238), or pick one of the other methods in this guide. î appears in French, Italian, Romanian and Welsh.

î on Excel: =UNICHAR(238)

Î on Excel: =UNICHAR(206)

Or copy it:

Method 1: UNICHAR formula

Type =UNICHAR(238) in a cell to get î. To check a letter, =UNICODE("î") returns 238. Both work in Excel 2013 and later and in Google Sheets.

Method 2: CHAR formula on Windows

=CHAR(238) also returns î on Windows, because it uses the Windows-1252 code page. On a Mac CHAR uses a different code page, so prefer UNICHAR.

Method 3: Keyboard methods inside a cell

Double-click the cell, then use Alt+0238 on Windows or Option+I, then I on a Mac.

Method 4: Find and replace accented text

Use =SUBSTITUTE(A1,"î","i") to strip this accent from a column, for example when cleaning names for an email system that does not accept accents.

How to type the capital Î

The uppercase form works the same way with Shift added where a letter is typed.

UNICHAR formula

Type =UNICHAR(206) in a cell to get Î. To check a letter, =UNICODE("Î") returns 206. Both work in Excel 2013 and later and in Google Sheets.

CHAR formula on Windows

=CHAR(206) also returns Î on Windows, because it uses the Windows-1252 code page. On a Mac CHAR uses a different code page, so prefer UNICHAR.

About the letter î

î is Unicode U+00EE, named LATIN SMALL LETTER I WITH CIRCUMFLEX. It is used in French, Italian, Romanian, Welsh and Afrikaans. A small caret (^) above a vowel. In French it often marks a vanished s (forêt from forest), in Portuguese a closed vowel, in Welsh a long vowel, and in Vietnamese a distinct vowel (â, ê, ô). See the î character page for every code and shortcut.

Troubleshooting

UNICHAR is not available in Excel 2010 and earlier.
CSV files saved as plain "CSV" may lose accents. Save as "CSV UTF-8".
If accents show as question marks after import, set the file origin to 65001: Unicode (UTF-8) in the import wizard.

Frequently asked questions

What is the shortcut for î on Excel?

=UNICHAR(238).

Can I just copy and paste î?

Yes. Click the copy button above, then paste with Ctrl+V on Windows and Chromebook, Cmd+V on a Mac, or touch and hold and choose Paste on a phone.

What is the Unicode code for î?

U+00EE. In HTML it is î.

Related guides

All accent shortcuts for Excel