German Keyboard Online: ä, ö, ü, ß and the QWERTZ Layout
This German keyboard types ä, ö, ü and ß in the box below, with Ä, Ö, Ü and the capital ẞ under Shift. Tap a key, or on a PC hold Alt and press the plain vowel, then copy the text. A QWERTZ layout puts ü right of P, ö and ä right of L, and ß right of 0.
This is the German QWERTZ layout from Windows, key for key, with Z and Y swapped against an English keyboard. Write with your own keyboard as you normally would, or press any key in the picture. Shaded keys type what English layouts leave out: ü to the right of P, ö and ä to the right of L, and ß beside 0. With Shift and AltGr both on, the ß key gives the capital ẞ. Without a mouse, hold Alt and tap the plain vowel; the list under the keyboard gives every key.
A phone shows ä, ö, ü and ß as large keys here, and the QWERTZ layout appears once the screen is as wide as a tablet. The phone keyboard itself holds the umlauts behind the vowel: Touch and hold A, then slide to ä.
German letters an English keyboard lacks dead key: it types nothing until the next key
- ä ö ß ü keys of their own
Umlauts and ß without hunting for keys: one press each, and Shift turns ß into ẞ.
Which keys type German letters in this editor?
In the box above, hold Alt and press the plain letter: the editor types its German form. Add Shift for the capital. ß has no key here: tap it on the screen.
| Press | Types | With Shift |
|---|---|---|
| Alt+A | ä | Ä |
| Alt+O | ö | Ö |
| Alt+U | ü | Ü |
These keys belong to this page only; they do nothing in other apps. On a Mac the editor leaves Option to macOS, so the Mac's own accent keys work in the box as they do everywhere else: ä is Option+U, then A. AltGr on a Windows keyboard is left alone too, so it types what your layout prints on the key.
Where are ä, ö, ü and ß on a German QWERTZ keyboard?
A German keyboard is named QWERTZ after its top row. Z sits between T and U, where an English keyboard has Y, and Y drops to the bottom row beside X. The umlaut letters take over keys that an English layout gives to punctuation.
Microsoft's German keyboard layout (opens in a new tab) page draws every key and layer, and the Windows column below was read from it key by key. The Mac column is the German input source, read with UCKeyTranslate on macOS 26.6.2 on 2026-10-20.
| To type | Windows: German | Mac: German |
|---|---|---|
| ü, Ü | its own key, right of P | the same key |
| ö, Ö | its own key, right of L | the same key |
| ä, Ä | its own key, right of ö | the same key |
| ß | its own key, right of 0; Shift on it types ? | the same key, the same ? |
| ẞ | Shift and AltGr on the ß key | no key |
| é and è | the dead key right of ß: ´, with Shift ` | the same dead key |
| â and ê | the ^ dead key, left of 1 | the same dead key |
| @ | AltGr with Q | Option with L |
| € | AltGr with E | Option with E |
So German itself needs no dead key. Each of its letters is a single press, and Shift gives the capital. The dead keys are there for accents German borrows: ´ and then e types the é of Café.
Can a German keyboard type the capital ẞ?
On Windows it can. In Microsoft's German layout, Shift and AltGr on the ß key give ẞ. The rules caught up in 2017. The Council for German Orthography said in its press release of 29 June 2017 (opens in a new tab) that the updated rules admit ẞ next to SS. § 25 E3 of the Amtliches Regelwerk (opens in a new tab) gives the example: Straße, STRAẞE or STRASSE.
The Mac's German input source has no ẞ on any key, with or without Shift and Option. macOS also ships German – Standard, whose input source ID names DIN 2137, the German standard for keyboard layouts. On that one, Option with G types ẞ.
The current edition, DIN 2137-1:2023-08 (opens in a new tab), is sold rather than free to read, so its key positions are not printed here. In the editor above, Shift on the ß key types ẞ. The Eszett page lists the other ways to get it.
What do you write when a keyboard has no ä, ö, ü or ß?
The official rules have a stand-in for ß alone. § 25 E2 of the Regelwerk says to write ss when ß is not available, and adds that Switzerland and Liechtenstein may always write ss: Straße, Strasse. For ä, ö and ü the Regelwerk names no replacement. The ae, oe and ue spellings come from other rule books, the passport among them, as the German alphabet page shows.
A list does not treat the two spellings as one name. Duden's guide to alphabetical name lists (opens in a new tab) files ä, ö and ü as plain a, o and u, but files names with ae, oe or ue after ad, od or ud. So Kühn files with Kuhn, while Kuehn files after the names that start with Kud. When the keyboard lacks the key, type the letter here and paste it in.
How is the Swiss German keyboard different?
Switzerland writes German without ß, and its keyboard follows. Microsoft's Swiss German layout (opens in a new tab), KLID 00000807, has no ß on any key or layer: the character does not occur in its data at all, while ä does. The umlaut keys sit where the German layout has them. Shift on them types a French letter, not the capital.
| Key | Swiss German | With Shift |
|---|---|---|
| right of P | ü | è |
| right of L | ö | é |
| right of ö | ä | à |
| right of ü | the ¨ dead key | ! |
| 4 | 4 | ç |
The capitals Ä, Ö and Ü come from Caps Lock on the same keys, or from the ¨ dead key and then the capital vowel. @ is AltGr with 2. The Mac's Swiss German input source moves the letters the same way: Shift on the ü key gives è. Its Option with S still types ß.
How do you switch to a German keyboard?
Every system keeps your own layout and adds German beside it, so you can swap only while you write German.
| Device | Add the layout | Switch while typing | Names you will see |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | Start, Settings, Time & language, Language & region; then Language options and Add a keyboard | hold the Windows logo key and press the Spacebar | German, Swiss German |
| Mac | System Settings, Keyboard, Text Input, Edit, then the Add button | Control-Space bar, or the Input menu | German, Austrian, German – Standard, Swiss German |
| iPhone | Settings, General, Keyboard, Keyboards, Add New Keyboard | touch and hold the globe or emoji key | a language, then an alternative layout |
| Android | Settings at the top of the keyboard, Languages, Add keyboard, then a layout | touch and hold the space bar | the language and its layouts |
The steps come from Microsoft (opens in a new tab), Apple for the Mac (opens in a new tab), Apple for the iPhone (opens in a new tab) and Google's Gboard help (opens in a new tab). The Mac names are the ones macOS 26.6.2 shows, read from its input source list.
You can also skip the layout. The editor at the top is a German keyboard online: it types the German characters ä, ö, ü, ß and ẞ on a phone as well as a PC. The German keyboard shortcuts in the cards below type each letter on an English keyboard. The umlaut page explains the two dots, and ä, ö and ü each have a page of their own.
What are the German keyboard shortcuts on each device?
Without a German layout, these are the documented ways to type the letters: one card per device, letter by letter. A capital takes Shift on the last key: on a Mac, Ä is Option+U, then Shift+A.
iPhone, iPad and Android
- ä
- Touch and hold A, then slide to ä
- ö
- Touch and hold O, then slide to ö
- ü
- Touch and hold U, then slide to ü
No documented method for ß.
Chromebook
First: switch to the US International keyboard.
No documented method for ß.
Google Docs
- ä
- Insert, then Symbols, then Special characters, then search "latin small letter a with diaeresis"
- ö
- Insert, then Symbols, then Special characters, then search "latin small letter o with diaeresis"
- ß
- Insert, then Symbols, then Special characters, then search "latin small letter sharp s"
- ü
- Insert, then Symbols, then Special characters, then search "latin small letter u with diaeresis"
Sources:Mac (Apple) (opens in a new tab)Mac (Apple) (opens in a new tab)Windows (Microsoft) (opens in a new tab)iPhone, iPad (Apple) (opens in a new tab)Android (Google) (opens in a new tab)Chromebook (Google) (opens in a new tab)Microsoft Word (Microsoft) (opens in a new tab)Google Docs (Google) (opens in a new tab)
Frequently asked questions about the German keyboard
Where is the @ sign on a German keyboard?
On the Windows German layout, @ is AltGr with Q, and € is AltGr with E. With the German input source on a Mac, @ moves to Option with L. The Swiss German layout on Windows puts @ on AltGr with 2, so the key depends on which German keyboard you have.
Why does Shift with the ß key type a question mark?
Because on a German layout ß and ? share one key, right of 0, and the question mark is its Shift layer. The capital ẞ lives on the same key one layer further: on Windows, hold Shift and AltGr together and press it. The German input source on a Mac has no ẞ key at all.
Does Swiss German use ß?
No. The official rules let Switzerland and Liechtenstein always write ss, so Strasse is correct Swiss spelling. The Swiss German layout on Windows has no ß on any key or layer. On a Mac, the Swiss German input source still types ß with Option and S.
Is the Austrian keyboard the same as the German one?
On a Mac, yes. We read both input sources with UCKeyTranslate on macOS 26.6.2: every key types the same character as German with and without Shift, and with and without Option. Only the name in the Input menu differs. The Swiss German layout is the one that moves keys.
Does the German keyboard editor send my text anywhere?
No. What you type stays in this browser. The editor keeps a draft in your device's local storage, so the text survives a reload, and nothing leaves the page. Clear wipes the box and the draft together. A private window may not keep the draft at all.