Before anything, what is a square root symbol? Let me quickly take you back to high school mathematics. Here’s what the square root symbol looks like.

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We often need this symbol in your spreadsheets for a variety of tasks. Some of the time to compose a formula, write down an expression, and so much more.
How do you add that in Excel? There are multiple ways how you can do that. Let me take you through all of them in the article below.
Also if you wonder how to add other symbols, you can check our other articles:
Copy/Paste the Square Root Symbol in Excel
Out of many ways to add the square root symbol in Excel, the first and the easiest is to copy it from below simply.
- Select this square root symbol √.
- Right-click on it > Click on Copy.
- Go to the relevant cell in your Excel sheet.
- Double-click on the cell to activate it.

- Right-click to launch the Paste Special Options.
- Click on Paste as shown below.

And there you go.

Ta-da! The symbol is pasted to your Excel sheet. Make as many copies of the same as desired, and you’re all set.
However, this method is only advisable if you only need to add one (or a very few) square root symbols to your sheet. If you need them more than that, try the other methods discussed below.
Insert Square Root Symbol Using Symbol Option
The square root is recognized as a symbol by Excel and is included in the symbols library of Excel. Let’s find it out together.
- Activate the cell where you want the square root symbol inserted.
- Go to the Insert Tab > Symbols as shown below.

This will launch the Symbol dialog box as follows.

- Set the Font to normal text (as shown below).
- Set the Subset to Mathematical Operators (as shown below).

From the signs that appear, select the “Square Root” symbol.
- Click on Insert.
And there, you have it added to your sheet.

The next time you need to add it, it will be saved in the recently used symbols, so the whole process gets quicker.

Pretty cool, right?
Insert the Square Root Symbol Using the UNICHAR Function
Another method you can use to add the square root symbol to an Excel sheet is by using the UNICHAR function. How? Let’s see that below.
TIP! The UNICHAR function works with ASCII codes (which are numerical values). For each of these codes, the UNICHAR function returns a unique code.
Inserting the square root symbol using the UNICHAR function is simple if you know the required ASCII code. And that code number is 8730. Let’s now see how to use it to insert the square root symbol in Excel.
- Activate the cell where you want the square root symbol inserted.
- Begin writing the UNICHAR function as follows:
= UNICHAR (
- Write in the code 8730 as follows:
= UNICHAR (8730)

- Hit Enter to see the results below.

See that?
However, there’s one problem with the UNICHAR function. It does add the square root symbol, but if you want to use it with other characters, you will have to concatenate it with them.
Like below.

To help this, you can copy and paste the square root symbol as a simple value. Here’s how to do it.
- Copy the formula.
- Go to another cell and right-click to launch the Paste Special options.
- Paste it as Values.

Check out the formula bar to see that the UNICHAR formula has gone away. What’s left behind is a simple square root symbol.

Now you can easily use it around your spreadsheet without worrying about the UNICHAR formula running behind it. How cool is that?
Insert the Square Root Symbol Using a Keyboard Shortcut
It’s always easier to simply use your keyboard to type any character, and the square root symbol is no exception.
Although you will not find the square root symbol on your keyboard, you can still type it using the following keyboard shortcut.
What is that? The Alt key + 2 + 5 + 1.
All of these 4 keys are to be typed in succession, i.e., one after the other.
TIP! Here’s something very important that you must know about using this keyboard shortcut. This keyboard shortcut will only work with a numeric keypad. So if your keyboard (or laptop) doesn't have a numeric keypad, this keyboard shortcut would not work with the other number keys on your keyboard. In this case, you'd have to use any of the methods discussed above.
Let us now quickly go through the steps to be followed to insert the square root symbol using this shortcut.
- Activate the cell where you want the square root symbol inserted.
- Press the following keys on your keyboard in sequential order.
Alt key + 2 + 5 + 1

And that’s it. You have it inserted in the selected cell.

Change the Format of Values to Add the Square Root Symbol
This method comes last because it works differently than the other methods on this list.
Under this format, we only change the format of the values in our spreadsheet to prefix them with a square root symbol. So, in essence, you don’t add the character to your sheet. But the values in your sheet are formatted as such to exhibit it.
Let’s change the format of the values in the image below to see how we can do it.

Here are the steps to be followed.
- Select all the cells where the square root symbol is to be added.

- Go to the Home tab > Number > the small arrow button to launch the Format Cells dialog box.

- From the Format Cells dialog box, go to the Number Tab.
- Go to “Custom” from the pane on the left.
- Add the square root symbol ( √ ) before the category General.

TIP! You can simply copy it from here ( √ ) and paste it there. Or, if you have a numerical keypad, use the Alt key + 251 shortcuts to add one instantly.
- Click on Okay. A square root symbol will be added before every number on the list.

However, these numbers are only formatted to include a square root symbol. A square root symbol doesn’t actually exist in the cell.
This is evident from the Formula bar.

Hence, this method is only suitable if you want the square root symbol for presentation purposes.
Conclusion
In this guide, we explored different ways of inserting the Square root symbol in Excel. We saw the technique of using UNICHAR function, we saw how to use formatting to insert the symbol, and we also tried some cool keyboard shortcuts.
You can use any of the above explained methods to insert Square root in Excel. It might take you some practice before you master the art, but once you do, it will seem easier than falling off a log.
Our favorite method is using the UNICHAR function to add the symbol – have you found yours? If not, then what are you waiting for? Find the best suited method for your purpose now!