Home › Generators & Text Tools › Urdu Keyboard Online
Urdu Keyboard Online
Use this free urdu keyboard online to type Urdu without installing anything. Click the on-screen Urdu alphabet keys and your words appear in the text box, written right to left exactly as Urdu should be. When you are done, copy your text or download it as a file.
How it works
This keyboard puts the whole Urdu alphabet on your screen, so you can write Urdu on any computer, tablet, or phone, even if the device has no Urdu input installed. Click a letter and it appears in the text box at the cursor. Click another and it joins on, exactly as it would in handwriting. The box is set to right-to-left, so your words flow from the right side of the line toward the left, the way Urdu is read.
The keys follow the order of the Urdu alphabet: ا ب پ ت ٹ ث ج چ ح خ د ڈ ذ ر ڑ ز ژ س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ک گ ل م ن و ہ ھ ء ی ے. The bottom row holds the Urdu digits ۰ ۱ ۲ ۳ ۴ ۵ ۶ ۷ ۸ ۹ and the common punctuation marks ۔ (full stop), ، (comma), and ؟ (question mark). If you prefer a physical keyboard, you can also type directly into the box when your system has Urdu input turned on; the character and word counters update either way.
Three helper keys sit under the alphabet. Backspace deletes the letter just before the cursor, Space puts a gap between words, and Clear empties the whole box — use it only when you are sure, because it cannot be undone. Below the keyboard, the preview shows your text in large type so you can check the letter shapes, and the Copy button copies everything to your clipboard for pasting into a document, an email, or a message. The Download .txt button saves your text as a UTF-8 plain text file, which keeps the Urdu letters correct when you open the file later.
Urdu script basics
Urdu is written in a script based on Arabic, with extra letters added for sounds Arabic does not have. It has 39 letters and no capital letters. Most letters are joining letters: they connect to the letter before and after them, and each one takes a different shape depending on whether it stands alone, starts a word, sits in the middle, or ends a word. Your browser handles the joining for you — you click ب once, and it appears in the right shape for its place in the word.
Dots do a lot of work in Urdu. Several letters share the same basic shape and are told apart only by their dots: ب has one dot below, ت has two dots above, and ث has three dots above. The letters پ (p), چ (ch), and گ (g) were added for sounds in Urdu that Arabic lacks, and ٹ, ڈ, and ڑ are retroflex letters, made with the tongue curled back against the roof of the mouth. The letters ا, د, ڈ, ذ, ر, ڑ, ز, ژ, و, and ؤ do not join to the letter after them, which is why a word can have small breaks inside it even though the letters flow together.
Urdu is read from right to left, while the digits inside a sentence usually still run left to right. The standard printed style is Nastaliq, in which the letters slope diagonally and words stack in a flowing cascade; the simpler Naskh style, with letters sitting on a straight line, is common on screens. This page uses whatever Urdu font your device has, so the letters will look like Nastaliq on some devices and Naskh on others — the text itself is the same either way.
Worked example
To write the greeting سلام (salaam, meaning "peace"), click four keys in this order: س, then ل, then ا, then م. Even though you click from the first letter to the last, each letter appears to the left of the one before it, because Urdu runs right to left. The counter will show 4 characters and 1 word, and the preview will show the joined word سلام in large type.
Step 1: Click س. The box shows س, one character, and the counter reads 1 character.
Step 2: Click ل. It joins to the left of س, and the box shows سل.
Step 3: Click ا. It does not join to the next letter, so the box shows سلا.
Step 4: Click م. The word is complete: سلام.
Try the "Type a sample" button to see this happen on its own: it writes سلام دنیا (salaam duniya, "peace to the world") into the box. The counter will show 9 characters and 2 words, counting the space between the words. From there, keep clicking letters to build your own sentences, and use Copy or Download .txt when you are finished.
FAQ
How do I type Urdu with this keyboard?
Click any letter on the on-screen keyboard and it appears in the text box, written from right to left. The keys are laid out in the order of the Urdu alphabet, so you can find letters quickly. You can also type directly into the box with a physical keyboard if your system already has Urdu input enabled. Use the backspace key to delete the last letter, the space key for a gap between words, and the copy or download buttons when your text is ready.
Why do Urdu letters change shape?
Urdu letters are joining letters: most of them connect to the letter before and after them, and each letter has up to four shapes — alone, at the start of a word, in the middle, and at the end. For example, the letter ب looks different on its own (ب) than at the start of a word (بـ) or in the middle (ـبـ). Your browser joins the letters automatically as you type, so you only need to click each letter once and the correct shape appears.
How many letters does the Urdu alphabet have?
The Urdu alphabet has 39 letters. It is based on the Arabic script with extra letters added for sounds that Arabic does not have, such as پ (p), چ (ch), and گ (g), plus the retroflex letters ٹ, ڈ, and ڑ, which are made with the tongue curled back. Several letters share the same basic shape and are told apart only by their dots, such as ب (one dot below), ت (two dots above), and ث (three dots above).
Can I download what I type?
Yes. The Download .txt button saves everything in the text box as a plain text file on your device, encoded in UTF-8 so the Urdu letters stay correct when you open the file. You can also use the Copy button to copy the text and paste it into a document, a message, or a social media post. Nothing you type is sent to a server or stored anywhere.
Does Urdu read right to left?
Yes. Urdu is written and read from right to left, and numbers in Urdu text usually run left to right within the sentence. The text box on this page is set to right-to-left, so your words flow the correct way as you type. The Urdu digits ۰ to ۹ are included on the keyboard if you want to write numbers in Urdu script instead of 0 to 9.