How to Insert Pound Sterling Sign in Excel & Google Sheets

This tutorial demonstrates how to insert the pound sterling sign in Excel and Google Sheets.

 

 

You can insert the pound sign in Excel either by using the currency number format or by using a shortcut.

Insert Pound Sign

Currency Number Format

Say you have the following data set with Product Name in Column B and Product Price in Column C.

 

 

To format numbers in Column C as currency (in GBP), follow these steps:

1. Select the range of values (here, C2:C8), and in the Ribbon, go to Home and click on the Number Format icon in the bottom right corner of the Number group.

 

 

2. In the Format Cells window, choose the Currency category from the right side, click on the drop-down menu for Symbol, select £ English (United Kingdom), and click OK.

 

 

As a result, all numbers are formatted as currency with the pound sign before the number.

 

 

Keyboard Shortcut

Another way to add the pound sign is to use the keyboard shortcut. You can only insert a symbol in one cell at a time, then copy the symbol to the rest of the cells in the range. (If you do this often, you might want to automate the insertion with a VBA loop).

1. Double-click a cell where you want to insert the pound sign (e.g., C2), and make sure the cursor is positioned before the number.
2. On the keyboard, press ALT + 0163.

 

 

The result is the pound sign inserted in cell C2, before the number. Excel automatically formats the cell as currency.

3. Now you can use the Format Painter to add the pound sign to the rest of the values in Column C.

Note: To store the pound symbol as a character in the cell rather than a displayed format, change the cell format to text first.

Insert Pound Sign in Google Sheets

In Google Sheets, you can also insert the pound sign into cells by formatting cells as currency.

1. Select the range of values (e.g., C2:C8), click on the More formats icon (123) in the toolbar, select More Formats and click on More currencies.

 

 

2. In the Custom currencies window, select British Pound Sterling, choose the format you want (£1,000) and click Apply.

 

 

The result is the same as in Excel: All values in the selected range now begin with the pound sign.