The GW-BASIC character set includes all characters that are legal in GW-BASIC commands, statements, functions, and variables. The set comprises alphabetic, numeric, and special characters.
The alphabetic characters in GW-BASIC are the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet.
The numeric characters in GW-BASIC are the digits 0 through 9.
The following special characters and terminal keys are recognized by GW-BASIC:
| Character | Description |
| Blank. | |
| = | Equal sign or assignment symbol. |
| + | Plus sign or string concatenation. |
| - | Minus sign. |
| * | Asterisk or multiplication symbol. |
| / | Slash or division symbol. |
| ^ | Caret, exponentiation symbol, or CTRL key. |
| ( | Left parenthesis. |
| ) | Right parenthesis. |
| % | Percent or integer declaration. |
| # | Number sign or double-precision declaration. |
| $ | Dollar sign or string declaration. |
| ! | Exclamation point or single-precision declaration. |
| [ | Left bracket. |
| ] | Right bracket. |
| , | Comma. |
| "" | Double quotation marks or string delimiter. |
| . | Period, dot, or decimal point. |
| ' | Single quotation mark, apostrophe, or remark indicator. |
| ; | Semicolon or carriage return suppressor. |
| : | Colon or line statement delimiter. |
| & | Ampersand or descriptor for hexadecimal and octal number conversion. |
| ? | Question mark. |
| < | Less than symbol. |
| > | Greater than symbol. |
| \ | Backslash or integer division symbol. |
| @ | "At" sign. |
| _ | Underscore. |
| BACKSPACE | Deletes last character typed. |
| ESC | Erases the current logical line from the screen. |
| TAB | Moves print position to next tab stop. Tab stops are every eight columns. |
| CURSOR | Moves cursor to next physical line. |
| RETURN | Terminates input to a line and moves cursor to beginning of the next line, or executes statement in direct mode. |