On a standard QWERTY keyboard, the asterisk symbol (*) shares its key with the number 8, sitting directly on the same keycap in the row of number keys above the letters. This is true across almost every standard English-language keyboard layout, whether it's built into a laptop, sold as a standalone desktop keyboard, or included with a compact wireless setup.
How the Shift Key Comes Into Play
Pressing the 8 key on its own types the number 8, just as expected with any number key.
Holding Shift and pressing that same key types the asterisk symbol instead, since Shift acts as a modifier that switches the key's output to its secondary character.
This pairing is standard across virtually every English-language QWERTY keyboard, whether it's a desktop keyboard, laptop keyboard, or a standard external keyboard layout, including most keyboards sold in the US, UK, and other English-speaking regions.
On numeric keypads, separate from the top row, the asterisk often appears as its own dedicated key rather than sharing space with a number, typically used to represent multiplication in calculator-style input.
Why Number Keys Double Up With Symbols
Most number keys along the top row of a keyboard carry two characters each, a number as the primary character and a symbol as the shifted character, a layout choice that has stuck around for decades.
This design dates back to early typewriters, where physical space for keys was limited and pairing related or commonly used symbols with numbers made the overall layout far more efficient.
Symbol placement wasn't random either. Keyboard designers historically grouped certain symbols with certain numbers based on how frequently those symbols were used together in typed documents at the time.
Other common pairings follow the same logic, like the number 1 sharing a key with the exclamation mark, and the number 2 sharing a key with the "at" symbol, both chosen for convenience rather than any strict mathematical relationship.
A Few Other Common Number-Symbol Pairings
1 shares its key with the exclamation mark (!), commonly used to end sentences with emphasis or flag urgency in written text.
2 shares its key with the "at" symbol (@), now most recognizable from email addresses and social media handles.
3 shares its key with the number sign or hashtag (#), which has taken on a second life in recent years through social media tagging.
4 shares its key with the dollar sign ($), used constantly in anything involving pricing or currency.
5 shares its key with the percent symbol (%), frequently used in statistics, discounts, and measurements.
6 shares its key with the caret symbol (^), commonly seen in mathematical notation to indicate an exponent.
7 shares its key with the ampersand (&), often used as shorthand for "and" in titles, brand names, and casual writing.
9 and 0 share their keys with the opening and closing parentheses, used constantly in writing, coding, and math.
Quick Tip to Remember This
Once these pairings become familiar, switching between numbers and their paired symbols becomes second nature, especially for anyone who types frequently, codes regularly, or creates passwords that mix numbers with special characters. The layout has stayed remarkably consistent for decades, which is part of why it's worth learning once and relying on it across nearly any standard keyboard encountered afterward.
