The Swiss franc has no dedicated symbol. You write it as CHF or Fr. , both of which are ordinary Latin letters you type on any keyboard with no special code.
CHF is the ISO 4217 currency code, and it is the form used in banking, exchange rates, and price tags across Switzerland and Liechtenstein. There is no single character to hunt for, no Alt code to memorise, and no Unicode code point for a “franc sign. “
If you only need a related currency glyph to paste, grab one below. For the franc itself, just type the three letters.
How the Swiss franc is written
There are two accepted written forms, and they are used in different contexts. Neither is a symbol in the Unicode sense; both are plain text.
| Form | What it is | Where it appears | How to type it |
|---|---|---|---|
| CHF | ISO 4217 currency code (Confoederatio Helvetica Franc) | Banking, forex, invoices, international pricing | Type the letters C, H, F |
| Fr. | Common abbreviation, often with a period | German- and French-speaking Swiss retail, signage | Type F, r, and a full stop |
| fr. / frs. | Lowercase variants, plural forms in some styles | Older texts, French usage | Type the letters normally |
Style guides in Switzerland generally place the amount after the code in professional writing: CHF 250. Retail signage often uses the short form: Fr. 250.–, where the dash after the decimal stands for zero centimes.
Because these are standard characters, they render correctly in every font on every device. You will never see a Swiss franc “amount” turn into a tofu box, unlike glyphs such as the Vietnamese dong (₫).
Typing CHF and Fr. on every platform
Since CHF and Fr. are letters, the “method” on every device is the same: type them.
What follows covers the small extras — the centime dash, autocorrect entries, and how to insert the letters when you are working inside a locked field. There is no Alt code because there is no single character to encode.
Windows
Type CHF or Fr. directly. There is no Windows Alt code for a Swiss franc symbol, because none exists in Unicode.
For the price-tag dash after a decimal (–), hold Alt and type 0150 on the numeric keypad for an en dash. That needs the number pad, not the top-row digits.
Mac
Type the letters as normal. Mac has no Alt codes at all; it uses Option combinations for special characters, and none apply here. For the en dash used in Swiss retail pricing, press Option + hyphen.
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
Type CHF anywhere. In Excel, format cells as currency and choose Swiss Franc from the currency list; Excel then displays CHF or SFr.
automatically based on your regional settings, without you typing it. Set this under Format Cells → Currency → Symbol.
If you type a franc amount often in Word, add an AutoCorrect entry: go to File → Options → Proofing → AutoCorrect Options, and map a short trigger like ;chf to CHF . Word’s Alt+X trick is for Unicode characters and has nothing to insert here.
Google Docs and Sheets
In Docs, type the letters. In Sheets, apply Format → Number → Custom currency and pick Swiss Franc, so cells show CHF while you enter plain numbers. Google Sheets has no Insert Symbol menu, but you do not need one for text this simple.
iPhone, Android, and Chromebook
Type CHF on the standard keyboard on all three. On iPhone and Android, set up a text replacement (iOS: Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement; Android: Settings → System → Languages → Personal dictionary) so a shortcut like chff expands to the full form.
Chromebook has no Alt codes; ChromeOS uses Ctrl+Shift+U plus a hex value for Unicode characters, which again has no target here. Just type the letters.
Notion, Slack, Discord, and Canva
Type CHF or Fr. straight into any of them.
Slack supports text expansion through its Preferences → Advanced replacements, and Canva accepts the letters in any text box. None of these need a paste trick, because the franc is not a special glyph.
HTML and CSS
Write CHF or Fr. as plain text in your markup. There is no HTML entity for a Swiss franc, because there is no character to reference.
For currency-aware formatting on the web, use the JavaScript Intl API: new Intl.NumberFormat('de-CH', {style:'currency', currency:'CHF'}).format(250) returns CHF 250.00 .
Where you actually use it
The CHF code shows up wherever amounts cross borders or systems: bank statements, forex tickers, e-commerce checkouts, and international invoices. It disambiguates the franc from the euro and the US dollar in any table where several currencies sit together.
The Fr. form belongs to everyday Swiss life: menus, shop windows, receipts, and price labels. You will also see SFr.
in older or German-language contexts, standing for “Schweizer Franken. ” Subdivisions are centimes (French), Rappen (German), or centesimi (Italian), abbreviated Rp. or ct.
What CHF is confused with
A few genuine mix-ups are worth clearing up, especially for anyone setting prices or writing for a Swiss audience.
- The franc “₣” sign (U+20A3), this is the French franc symbol, retired when France adopted the euro. Switzerland never used it for the Swiss franc. Do not substitute it for CHF.
- The generic currency sign “¤” (U+00A4) — a placeholder for “some currency,” not a franc. Type it in Word with 00A4 then Alt+X if you ever need it, but it does not mean Swiss francs.
- Fr. vs FR, “Fr.” with a period is the franc; “FR” without one is the ISO country code for France and the top-level domain, not money.
- CHF vs SFr. — both mean Swiss francs. CHF is the formal ISO code; SFr. is an older informal abbreviation. Prefer CHF in anything financial.
Troubleshooting
My spreadsheet shows the wrong currency name. Excel and Sheets pull the displayed franc abbreviation from your locale. Set the language or currency format to Switzerland (de-CH, fr-CH, or it-CH) so it renders CHF instead of a dollar sign.
Autocorrect keeps changing “Fr.” to “Fr” or capitalising the next word. The period makes some apps treat it as a sentence end.
Add “Fr. ” to your app’s autocorrect exceptions, or type a non-breaking space after it.
I found an “Alt code for the Swiss franc” online. It is wrong.
No such code exists because Unicode has no Swiss franc character. Any Alt code you are given will produce a different symbol or nothing.
Related guides
Sorting out several currencies at once? The complete list of world currency symbols shows which currencies have real glyphs and which, like the franc, use letters. Browse the full currency symbols collection for individual guides, or keep the copy-and-paste symbols tool open while you work.
Readers often reach this page while handling other codes and marks: see how to type the Chinese yuan symbol (¥), the cent symbol (¢), the Nigerian naira (₦), or the Vietnamese dong (₫).
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Swiss franc symbol like $ or €?
No. The Swiss franc has no dedicated single character in Unicode. It is written with the letters CHF (the ISO code) or the abbreviation Fr. Both are plain text you type on any keyboard.
What is the Alt code for the Swiss franc?
There isn’t one. Alt codes insert Unicode characters, and no Swiss franc character exists. Just type C, H, F. Any Alt code claiming to make a franc symbol produces something else.
Should I write CHF or Fr.?
Use CHF in anything financial, international, or formal, banking, invoices, and forex. Use Fr.
for Swiss retail, signage, and casual local pricing. Both are correct; the context decides.
What does the dash mean in prices like Fr. 250.–?
The dash stands for zero centimes, replacing “. 00”.
It is an en dash, typed with Alt+0150 on Windows or Option + hyphen on Mac. It is a Swiss retail convention, not part of the currency name.
Is CHF the same as SFr.?
They mean the same currency. CHF is the official ISO 4217 code; SFr.
is an older informal abbreviation for “Swiss Franc” or “Schweizer Franken. ” Modern financial writing prefers CHF.
How do I get Excel to show CHF automatically?
Select your cells, open Format Cells → Currency, and pick Swiss Franc from the Symbol dropdown. Excel then displays CHF or SFr. based on your region while you enter plain numbers.