How to superscript in Google Docs

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Robin Scott

If you’re like us, you’ll love using Google Docs for collaborating on work with your colleagues. Its super simple, and the end product looks just great!

But sometimes, you’ll find yourself looking for an option or function that you just can’t figure out. For those times, we produced a big guide to all the shortcut commands for Google Docs, here.

But this guide is to tell you how to do just. One. Thing. That is, how to make text superscript in Google Docs.

Did you want a subscript instead? (like this H20) Click here.

What is Superscript? (AKA Exponent)

Superscript is when some text shows higher in the line than the other text – like when you square something, or its the 8th (the th would be superscript!).

Or, even more simply, for your viewing pleasure, it looks like this. Nobody would want to do that, though, they might want to do it like this 1st!

Superscripts are another name for exponents (you know, exponents are when you square2 or cube3 something – you increase it… exponentially). I used to also say “to the power of” – in my school maths lessons, these were called “powers”.

How to superscript in Google Docs

To make this work in a Google Doc, all you have to do is:

  1. Highlight the text to be superscripted (i.e. the “st” in the above 1st example); then
  2. Press CTRL + .

To clarify, hold down the CTRL key and the full stop (UK) or period (USA) key at the same time.

Using the Special Characters Tool

If you can’t get that to work, try using the special character tool by going to Insert > Special Characters > Search for “superscript” and choose your special character like this:

special characters superscript in googleAny questions? Use Superscript in your Google Docs?

Leave a comment below if you’d like to ask about this! Silicon Dales are Google Workspace resellers, and as a consequence we work with Google Docs (and the rest of the package) very regularly. If we don’t know the answer, chances are we know someone who does!