Fumbling through apps just to square a simple sum? When you need to square, cube or take a number to another exponential degree, a Mac is all you need. Find out here how to square a number on a Mac ⤓ using macOS.
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How to Square a Number Quickly on a Mac
Using Spotlight (Fastest and Most Simple)
Time needed: 1 minute
To compute the square of a number quickly using Spotlight on a Mac:
- Bring up Spotlight Search.
Here’s how: Press Command Space by default.
- Type the number you want to square.
- Now follow up with
^2.Here’s how: Press Shift 6 to enter ^, then press 2.
Dead key circumflex: With some keyboard layouts, ^ is a dead key for adding the circumflex accent to letters like e, for instance; you need not follow up with Space to turn it into a character of its own before typing 2.
Squared alternative In lieu of ^2, you can also enter ² (squared) directly.
Other exponents: See below for cubing numbers, taking square roots, and more — all with raising numbers.
Copy: To copy the result (no matter what is highlight in Spotlight search), press Command C or click the copying button in the result.
Square Numbers in Safari (Even Offline)
To have Safari compute the square of a number (or raise it to another degree) without opening a website:
- Focus the address bar.
Safari keyboard shortcut: Press Command L to switch to the address bar quickly. - Type the mathematical expression using ^ (as with Spotlight; see above).
Example: Type3 ^ 2to raise 3 to the second power. - Find the result under Calculation in address bar auto-completions.
Using Calculator (Skeuomorphic)
To get the square for a number quickly in macOS Calculator:
- Open Calculator.
Here’s how: You can employ Spotlight, for instance, to open Calculator (instead of letting it compute the square sum directly). - Switch to Scientific mode.
Here’s how: Select View | Scientific from the menu.
Calculator keyboard shortcut: You can also press Command 2 to engage the scientific calculator. - Type the number you want to square.
- Now click x².
With the keyboard: You can also type^here followed by2(or a different exponent, of course).
Circumflex: Note that the keyboard entry only works with the stand-alone caret character ^, not the character-modifying circumflex accent.
- Press Enter or click =.
Using Math Notes (Traditional)
To calculate the square of a number right in a Apple Notes note:
- Enable math calculations in Apple Notes.
Here’s how: Select Format | Math Results | Suggest Results (or Format | Math Results | Insert Results) from the menu. - Type
<number>^2or<number>²followed by an equal sign (=). - Press Enter to accept the math result suggestion (with Suggest Results active).
Using Siri on a Mac to Square a Number (Conversational)
To have Siri respond with the square for a number:
- Bring up Siri.
- Ask, for instance, “What is <number> squared?”
Square a Number in Terminal (Command Line Versatility)
To calculate the square for any number from the Terminal command line:
- Open Terminal on the Mac.
- Type
bc -e "<number> ^ 2".
Important: The exponent must be an integer in bc.
Shorter: A shorter form isbc -e <number>^ 2; note that, without quotation marks, you have to escape whitespace (as inbc -e <number>\ ^\ 2.
Echoing: If you do not want to rely on the -e option, you can also pipe the command to bc:echo "<number> ^ 2" | bc.
Example: Usebc -e 3^2to square the number 3 quickly. - Press Enter.
How to Square a Number Quickly on a Mac: FAQ
Can I cube number or use a different exponent?
Yes.
Both Spotlight and Calculator let you take numbers to an exponent other than 2 easily, of course.
Instead of using 2 for the exponent following ^, you can use the following, for instance:
3: cube a number(1/2)(or(½)): compute the square root (√)e,pietc.: use mathematical constants as exponents-1: compute 1 divided by the number
(Tested with macOS Tahoe 26.0, Sequoia 15.0–15.3 and Sonoma 14.3; first published April 2024, last updated September 2025)