How to type Arabic on a keyboard: Windows, Mac and mobile

Typing Arabic on a keyboard comes down to one software change: you add an Arabic input layout and switch to it, whatever legends your keys carry. The same principle holds on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android, and a browser keyboard or voice input can fill the gaps. Once the layout is active, the Windows Arabic 101 key map shows where each letter, vowel mark and punctuation sign sits, even on English-labelled keycaps.

How to type Arabic on Windows or Mac

On a desktop, the physical keys never change. The operating system decides which character each keystroke produces, so an Arabic layout turns a standard UK board into an Arabic one the moment it is active. From there, the job is to install the layout once and learn the shortcut that moves between scripts.

Add Arabic input on Windows

On Windows 11, open Start → Settings → Time & language → Language & region. If Arabic is missing, choose Add a language and select it. Next, open the Arabic entry's … menu, then go to Language options → Keyboards → Add a keyboard. Windows 10 takes a slightly different path: Settings → Time & language → Language, select the language entry, then Options → Add a keyboard.

Adding the layout leaves the interface alone. A UK QWERTY keyboard can type Arabic while English (United Kingdom) stays the Windows display language. According to Microsoft, you do not necessarily need a full language pack just to get a keyboard layout.

Switch and check Windows layouts

Once installed, Windows key + Space cycles forwards through your layouts and Windows key + Shift + Space cycles backwards. You can also click the input-language indicator on the taskbar. Microsoft lists Arabic (101), Arabic (102) and Arabic (102) AZERTY as separate layouts. Language options → Keyboards shows which ones are installed and lets you remove any of them without touching the display language.

Arabic 101 changed recently. In December 2025, Microsoft added an AltGr layer, which makes the right Alt key a modifier: right Alt + S now produces the Saudi Riyal symbol. Arabic 102 and Arabic 102 AZERTY got matching changes. For anyone who prefers the old arrangement, an April 2026 preview introduced Arabic 101 Legacy.

Add and switch Arabic input on Mac

On current macOS, choose Apple menu → System Settings → Keyboard → Text Input → Edit → Add, then find an Arabic input source and add it. You can remove it from the same Text Input panel later. Control + Space goes back to the previously used source and Control + Option + Space moves to the next one. The Input menu in the menu bar does the same job.

Mac offers Arabic and Arabic : PC as separate arrangements, and neither should be assumed to match Windows Arabic 101 key for key. The difference matters on a mechanical board: the Arabic keycaps for mechanical keyboards print letters in fixed positions, while the software decides the output. macOS Tahoe 26 also added Arabic Transliteration, which turns words typed phonetically in English into Arabic.

How to type Arabic on iPhone or Android

On mobile, the Arabic keyboard is on-screen, but the principle is the same as on desktop: you add a keyboard in settings, then switch to it while typing. As a result, English and Arabic stay available side by side and the phone's language does not have to change.

Add an Arabic keyboard on iPhone

Go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard and choose Arabic. Apple adds Arabic to your Preferred Languages list automatically, but the phone's interface stays in English. iOS 26 brought two more options worth considering if you type in both scripts:

• Standard Arabic: the regular on-screen Arabic letter layout.
• Arabic Transliteration: you type words phonetically with Latin letters and they are converted to Arabic.
• Arabic Multiscript: mixes Arabic and English on one keyboard.
• Automatic detection: Multiscript recognises which language you are using as you type.

Multiscript is the one to choose if your messages move between the two languages mid-sentence, because it saves you from switching keyboards over and over.

Add an Arabic layout in Gboard

Open any text field so Gboard appears, then tap Settings → Languages → Add keyboard → Arabic, choose a layout and tap Done. Through system settings, the route is Settings → System → Keyboard → On-screen keyboard → Gboard → Languages. Google's instructions apply to Android 7.0 and later, although manufacturers can arrange these menus differently.

Gboard lists regional Arabic varieties, including Egypt, Gulf, Iraq, Levant, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Pick the variety and layout that match what you actually write, the same way you would pick legends for the customisable mint PBT keycap set, which can be ordered with an Arabic layout.

Switch keyboards while typing on mobile

On iPhone, touch and hold the Emoji/Globe key and select Arabic to start typing. To remove it later, go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards and delete it. In Gboard, touch and hold the space bar to change language. You can also turn on a globe key under Preferences → Show language switch key. If that option is missing, Google says to turn off the emoji-switch key first.

Tablets with a keyboard attached have one more setting. On Android 14 and later, Settings → System → Keyboard → Physical keyboard lets you choose the layout for the connected keyboard and keep the on-screen keyboard visible alongside it.

Can you type Arabic online or by voice?

Yes, although each method depends on different things. A browser keyboard works where you are not allowed to change settings. Voice input depends on speech recognition, and that is separate from keyboard support: a device that can type Arabic cannot necessarily transcribe spoken Arabic.

Use a browser-based virtual keyboard

A virtual keyboard in the browser helps on a borrowed or managed computer where you cannot change input settings. It gives you clickable Arabic keys and a text area, and some sites also turn physical key presses into Arabic characters. Many include diacritics, punctuation, right-to-left direction, and Copy and Clear buttons for moving text elsewhere. Sites handle what you enter differently, so check the privacy information before typing anything confidential.

Dictate Arabic on iPhone or Android

Voice typing on mobile uses the same Arabic keyboard you installed earlier. On each platform, the microphone key transcribes speech once Arabic is selected:

• iPhone: enable Dictation under Settings → General → Keyboard, select the Arabic keyboard and tap the microphone. This works only where Arabic Dictation is supported for your locale.
• Gboard on Android: select an Arabic keyboard, tap the microphone and speak. Google lists Arabic and several regional varieties.
• Review step: read the transcription back before sending, on either platform.

Gboard's advanced automatic multilingual voice detection is a separate feature from ordinary Arabic dictation. It lists English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish, not Arabic.

In practice, you need to select the Arabic keyboard by hand before you dictate Arabic, rather than rely on Gboard to detect it.

Check desktop dictation availability

On Windows, Windows + H opens voice typing, which needs a microphone and an internet connection. Arabic is not on Microsoft's cited list of supported languages for native Windows voice typing, and an Arabic layout does not add speech recognition. The same applies to key legends: the customisable black PBT keycap set can show Arabic, but it cannot transcribe it.

Mac handles this differently. Go to System Settings → Keyboard → Dictation → Languages to set dictation languages. What is available depends on the language and your region.

Where are Arabic characters on the keyboard?

There is no single Arabic key map. Windows Arabic 101 and 102, Mac Arabic and Arabic : PC, and mobile layouts can each put characters in different places. The positions given here follow Windows Arabic 101, one layout that works on an English keyboard without Arabic legends.

Find letters on Windows Arabic 101

Getting Arabic symbols on a keyboard is a matter of knowing which Latin key produces which letter once Arabic 101 is active. On each row, the positions map as follows:

• Top row: Q→ض, W→ص, E→ث, R→ق, T→ف, Y→غ, U→ع, I→ه, O→خ, P→ح, [→ج, ]→د.
• Home row: A→ش, S→س, D→ي, F→ب, G→ل, H→ا, J→ت, K→ن, L→م, ;→ك, '→ط.
• Lower row: Z→ئ, X→ء, C→ؤ, V→ر, B→لا, N→ى, M→ة,,→و,.→ز, /→ظ.

Do not assume these mappings on Mac or mobile layouts.

Type vowel marks and Arabic punctuation

Diacritics, the optional vowel marks in Arabic writing, sit on the Shift layer of Arabic 101. Shift+Q gives fatḥa َ, Shift+W fatḥatan ً, Shift+E ḍamma ُ and Shift+R ḍammatan ٌ. Shift+A gives kasra ِ and Shift+S kasratan ٍ. Shift+X gives sukūn ْ and Shift+` gives shadda ّ.

Each mark is a combining character, so you type it after its base letter: ب followed by fatḥa َ produces بَ. Shaping works on a similar principle. The system picks the contextual shape of each letter in the Arabic script automatically, so you never need separate keys for initial, medial or final forms.

Alongside the comma and question mark shown in the table, the Arabic semicolon ؛ is also part of the punctuation set. Number keys do not always produce Arabic-Indic digits. When Arabic text is mixed with English and numbers, the visual order may look unexpected, because bidirectional-text rules control how it displays.

See Arabic positions on English-labelled keys

With Latin-only legends, an on-screen map lets you check the layout without changing any keys. On Windows, the On-Screen Keyboard opens with Windows + Ctrl + O. On Windows 11, you can also find it under Settings → Accessibility → Keyboard → On-screen keyboard. It shows the Arabic characters for whichever layout is active.

On Mac, choose Show Keyboard Viewer from the Input menu. It displays the active Arabic layout and updates as you hold Shift or Option.

A permanent option is to put the Arabic alphabet on the caps themselves. Kromekeycaps offers Arabic–English dual-language keycaps for compatible mechanical keyboards, including customisable Mint PBT and Black PBT sets designed with an interactive layout builder. The printed legends show where each letter sits, but they do not install Arabic input. They also cannot match every software layout at once, so choose legends for the layout you actually use.

Frequently Asked Questions