How to use subscript and superscript in Google Docs

When doing high school and university assignments, inputting an answer like “H₂O” after “what is the chemical formula for water?” is an incredibly useful feature. That small “2” is what’s known as a subscripted figure or character that appears below the middle of the line you’re typing on. On the other hand, superscript is something like 4², where the small “2” appears above the middle of the line you’re typing on. Let’s go over how to do subscript and superscript in Google Docs.

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Using subscript and superscript in Google Docs allows you to create more accurate content. For example, instead of writing “H2O” as the chemical for water, you can properly write it as “H₂O.”

How to format text as subscript in Google Docs

Android and iOS

In your Google Doc, press the Format button in the top toolbar; this looks like a capital letter ‘A’ to the left of four horizontal lines.

In the Text tab at the bottom, press the X₂ button to turn on subscript. Press the X₂ button again to turn this off so it isn’t highlighted.

PC and Mac

On Google Docs, click the Format tab at the top. You can highlight what you wish to subscript as shown below, or, if you simply want to type in subscript, click where you want to start typing.

Hover your cursor over Text and click X₂ Subscript from the extended menu.

When finished, your text will be in subscript and look like this:

How to format text as superscript in Google Docs

Android and iOS

In your Google Doc, press the Format button in the top toolbar; this looks like a capital letter ‘A’ to the left of four horizontal lines.

In the Text tab at the bottom, press the X² button to turn on superscript. To turn this off, press the X² button again to avoid highlighting it.

PC and Mac

On Google Docs, click the Format tab at the top. You can highlight what you wish to subscript as shown below, or, if you simply want to type in subscript, click where you wish to start typing.

Hover your cursor over Text and click X² Superscript from the extended menu.

When finished, your text will be formatted in superscript and look like this:

How to insert special characters in Google Docs

If you were looking for some other small character that you can’t type in superscript or subscript, then you may be looking for a special character.

To insert special characters into your Google Doc, you must be using it on your computer. Alternatively, you can try accessing Google Docs from your mobile browser in Desktop site mode.

In your Google Doc, click the Insert tab at the top.

From the following dropdown, click Ω Special characters.

Locate the special character you are looking for by scrolling through the list, typing its name in the Search by keyword (e.g. arrow) or codepoint field, or drawing the symbol in the bottom box on the right. Click it from the list on the left to insert it when you find it.

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