Types of number symbols
Circled numbers ① to ⑳ are the most widely supported, and Unicode continues with ㉑ to ㊿, so you can number up to 50 in circles. Negative circled numbers ❶ to ❿ and ⓫ to ⓴ are white digits on a black disc and stand out in a list. The sans-serif dingbat sets ➀ to ➉ and ➊ to ➓ have a lighter, rounder look.
Parenthesized numbers ⑴ to ⒇ and numbers with a full stop ⒈ to ⒛ come from East Asian typesetting, where each one fits in a single character cell. Double circled digits ⓵ to ⓾ have two rings. Every one of these is a single character, so ⑿ is one symbol, not four.
How to use them
Number symbols work well for steps in a guide, rankings in a post, menu options and checklists in places that do not support real lists, such as Instagram captions, YouTube descriptions or Discord messages. Pick one style and stick to it, because mixing ① and ❷ in one list looks accidental.
Fonts vary. Circled numbers up to ⑳ are in almost every system font, but ㉑ to ㊿ and the double circled set may switch to a different font or show as boxes on older devices, so preview your post on a phone first.
Because they are symbols rather than digits, search, sorting and screen readers may not treat ③ as the number 3. Keep important numbers, like prices and phone numbers, as plain digits.
Emoji numbers and other styles
Keycap emoji like 1️⃣ are a digit plus two invisible characters (an emoji selector and a combining keycap), which is why they show as colorful buttons. They exist for 0 to 9, plus # and *, and 🔟 is a separate emoji for ten.
For bold or double-struck digits such as 𝟏 𝟚 𝟑, use the fancy text generator. For Roman numerals, see Roman numeral symbols. № is the numero sign, used before numbers in many languages (№ 5); in English, # or No. is more common, and the hashtag symbol page covers #.