About

The Unicode Standard defines 1,431 base emoji across 9 official categories as of Unicode 15.1. Each emoji is assigned a unique code point in the range U+1F600 to U+1FA95 and beyond. Misidentifying an emoji's category or code point causes rendering failures on older devices, broken chat messages, and accessibility gaps for screen reader users who rely on correct semantic annotations. This reference tool maps every major emoji to its Unicode consortium category with one-click copy to clipboard.

Category boundaries follow the Unicode CLDR (Common Locale Data Repository) grouping specification. Subcategory granularity - such as separating "hand-fingers-open" from "hand-fingers-closed" within People & Body - is preserved. The search index matches against official Unicode short names (e.g., "grinning face with big eyes" for U+1F603). Note: flag emoji availability depends on the host operating system's region support. Some platform vendors render certain emoji differently or not at all.

Formulas

Emoji code points use the Unicode scalar value representation. A single emoji character is encoded in UTF-16 as a surrogate pair when the code point exceeds U+FFFF:

High Surrogate = C − 0x100000x400 + 0xD800

Low Surrogate = (C − 0x10000) mod 0x400 + 0xDC00

Where C = the Unicode code point of the emoji. For flag emoji, two Regional Indicator Symbol letters combine: Flag = RI₁ + RI₂, where each RI ∈ {U+1F1E6 ... U+1F1FF} maps to letters A - Z. ZWJ (Zero-Width Joiner, U+200D) sequences combine multiple emoji into compound glyphs, producing family, profession, and gender-variant emoji.

Reference Data

Category	Unicode Block	Count (Approx.)	Example Emoji	Code Point Range
Smileys & Emotion	Emoticons	163	😀 😂 🥰 😎	U+1F600 - U+1F64F
People & Body	Misc Symbols	370	👋 🤝 💪 🧑	U+1F466 - U+1F9FF
Animals & Nature	Misc Symbols	148	🐶 🌸 🌲 🦋	U+1F400 - U+1F43F
Food & Drink	Misc Symbols	131	🍎 🍕 🍺 🧁	U+1F345 - U+1F37F
Travel & Places	Transport	215	✈️ 🏔️ 🌍 🏠	U+1F680 - U+1F6FF
Activities	Misc Symbols	82	⚽ 🎮 🎨 🏆	U+1F3A0 - U+1F3FF
Objects	Misc Symbols	233	💡 📱 🔧 📚	U+1F4A0 - U+1F4FF
Symbols	Misc Symbols	217	❤️ ✅ ⚠️ ♻️	U+2600 - U+27BF
Flags	Regional Indicators	258	🇺🇸 🇬🇧 🇯🇵 🏳️	U+1F1E6 - U+1F1FF
Component	Modifiers	9	🏻 🏼 🏽 🏾	U+1F3FB - U+1F3FF
Supplemental Symbols	Sup. Symbols A/B	150+	🥽 🦺 🧃 🪐	U+1F900 - U+1FA9F
Extended Pictographics	Ext-A	50+	🫠 🫶 🪿 🫎	U+1FA70 - U+1FAFF

Frequently Asked Questions

Each platform vendor (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung) designs their own glyph artwork for each Unicode code point. The Unicode Standard only specifies the semantic meaning and code point assignment, not the visual design. This means U+1F600 (Grinning Face) will look different on iOS vs Android. Some platforms lag behind Unicode releases, causing newer emoji to display as empty boxes or question marks.

A Zero-Width Joiner (U+200D) is an invisible character that combines multiple emoji into a single compound glyph. For example, 👩 + ZWJ + 🚀 = 👩‍🚀 (Woman Astronaut). ZWJ sequences technically belong to the category of their first base emoji, but vendors may classify them in subcategories like "person-role" under People & Body. Not all ZWJ combinations are supported - unsupported ones render as separate emoji.

Fitzpatrick skin tone modifiers (U+1F3FB through U+1F3FF) are Component-category code points that append to compatible base emoji. Only emoji with the "Emoji_Modifier_Base" property accept them. Applying a modifier to a non-compatible emoji results in two separate characters. The modified emoji retains its original category assignment (e.g., 👋🏽 remains in People & Body).

Flag emoji use pairs of Regional Indicator Symbols. While Unicode defines 258 valid flag sequences, platform support varies by region and political considerations. Some operating systems only render flags for UN-recognized nations. Subdivision flags (e.g., 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England) use Tag Sequences, which have even less support. Missing flags typically render as two-letter country codes or blank boxes.

This tool includes emoji through Unicode 15.1, covering approximately 1,431 base emoji plus variants. Emoji 16.0 additions (expected late 2024) will add new entries. The category structure follows the Unicode CLDR v44 grouping specification. Code points and names match the official Unicode emoji-test.txt data file.

Yes. Modern browsers support UTF-8 encoded emoji directly in HTML source. Ensure your document declares <meta charset="UTF-8">. For maximum compatibility, you can also use the numeric character reference format: 😀 for 😀. CSS content properties also accept emoji via escaped code points: content: "\1F600". Screen readers will announce the Unicode short name.