Code Point

Technical/Unicode

A unique numerical value assigned to each character in the Unicode standard, written in the format U+XXXX (e.g., U+1F600 for ๐Ÿ˜€).

Every character in Unicode โ€” whether a letter, symbol, or emoji โ€” is identified by a code point. Code points range from U+0000 to U+10FFFF, providing space for over 1.1 million possible characters.

Emoji code points are mostly in the range U+1F000 to U+1FAFF. A single emoji you see on screen may actually involve multiple code points combined through mechanisms like Zero Width Joiner (ZWJ) sequences or variation selectors.

For example, the family emoji ๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐Ÿ‘งโ€๐Ÿ‘ฆ is actually seven code points joined together: U+1F468 U+200D U+1F469 U+200D U+1F467 U+200D U+1F466.

Related Terms

Grapheme Cluster Grapheme Cluster
A user-perceived character that may be composed of multiple Unicode code points displayed as a single visual unit. Plane Plane
A group of 65,536 consecutive Unicode code points. Plane 0 is the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP); most emoji live in Plane 1 (SMP). Regional Indicator (RI) Regional Indicator (RI)
Paired Unicode letters (U+1F1E6 to U+1F1FF) that form country flag emoji when combined according to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes. Skin Tone Modifier Skin Tone Modifier
Five Unicode modifier characters based on the Fitzpatrick scale that change the skin color of human emoji (U+1F3FB to U+1F3FF). Tag Sequence Tag Sequence
Emoji flag sequences using special tag characters (U+E0020 to U+E007E) to represent subdivision flags like England, Scotland, and Wales. Unicode Unicode
Universal character encoding standard that assigns a unique number to every character across all writing systems and symbol sets, including emoji.

Related Tools

๐Ÿ”ข Unicode Lookup Unicode Lookup
Enter a codepoint like U+1F600 and get the emoji, encoding details, UTF-8/16 bytes, and HTML entities. ๐Ÿ” Sequence Analyzer Sequence Analyzer
Decode ZWJ sequences, skin tone modifiers, keycap sequences, and flag pairs into individual components.

Related Stories

Unicode Lookup: Find Any Emoji by Code Point
Enter a Unicode code point like U+1F600 or paste an emoji to see its full encoding breakdown โ€” UTF-8, UTF-16, HTML entities, and more.
What Are ZWJ Sequences? How Emoji Combine
Learn how Zero Width Joiner (ZWJ) sequences combine multiple emoji into one โ€” from family emoji to professions to flags.
Unicode Normalization Forms: NFC, NFD, NFKC, NFKD Explained
Understand Unicode normalization forms NFC, NFD, NFKC, and NFKD โ€” what they do, why they matter for emoji, and when to use each one.
Unicode Emoji Properties: Extended_Pictographic, Emoji_Presentation, and More
A developer's guide to Unicode emoji properties: what Extended_Pictographic, Emoji_Presentation, Emoji_Modifier, and Emoji_Component mean in practice.
Text vs Emoji Presentation Selectors: VS15 (U+FE0E) and VS16 (U+FE0F)
How Unicode variation selectors VS15 and VS16 control text vs emoji presentation โ€” with code examples for detection and normalization.
Skin Tone Modifiers: How Emoji Diversity Works
How emoji skin tone modifiers work โ€” the Fitzpatrick scale, encoding details, and the impact on digital representation.