How to write a proportional to symbol( ∝) in LaTeX?

We will learn different ways to use the “proportional to” symbol, including both built-in LaTeX commands and commands from extra packages. I hope this tutorial helps you learn it without any difficulty.

If you already know some LaTeX, this guide will be useful for you.

Using default \propto command

If you want to write the “proportional to” symbol in LaTeX in a simple way, you can use the \propto command. This is a built-in math command in LaTeX and works easily.

\[ a \propto b \]
\[ p \propto q \]

Output :

Using the \varpropto command from amssymb package

Sometimes, the default command may not be flexible enough. If you need a different style of the proportionality symbol, you can use \varpropto from the amssymb package in LaTeX. This gives a variation of the proportional symbol.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\begin{document}
   \[ a \varpropto b \]
   \[ p \varpropto q \] 
\end{document}

Output :

Using default proportional symbols is the best practice.

Approximately Proportional Symbol

To represent a relationship that is approximately proportional, there is no direct LaTeX command. However, you can create it by combining symbols.

One simple way is to use \propto and \sim together. For example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
  \[ a \underset{\sim}{\propto} b \]
  \[ a \stackrel{\propto}{\sim} b \]
\end{document}

Output :