How Many Words Is a Page? Single and Double Spaced

These figures assume 12 point Times New Roman or Arial, 1 inch (2.5 cm) margins and ordinary paragraphs, which is the default for most essays and reports:

• Single spaced: about 500 words per page.
• One and a half spaced: about 330 to 350 words per page.
• Double spaced: about 250 words per page.

Using 500 words for a single-spaced page and 250 for a double-spaced page:

• 250 words: half a page single spaced, 1 page double spaced.
• 500 words: 1 page single spaced, 2 pages double spaced.
• 1,000 words: 2 pages single spaced, 4 pages double spaced.
• 1,500 words: 3 pages single spaced, 6 pages double spaced.
• 2,000 words: 4 pages single spaced, 8 pages double spaced.
• 3,000 words: 6 pages single spaced, 12 pages double spaced.

Font choice makes a real difference. Times New Roman is narrow, so it fits more words per line than Arial or Calibri at the same size, and switching an essay from one to the other can add or remove several lines on every page. Wider margins, 11 rather than 12 point type, extra space between paragraphs, headings, lists, block quotes and tables all shift the count too. Dialogue in fiction uses many short lines and fits far fewer words per page.

If your instructions give a word count, the word count is what matters, not the page count. Teachers and editors set page limits because they are easy to see, and word limits because they are fair across fonts.

1. 1

   Paste your text

   Copy your draft into Word Counter. It counts as you type, and nothing is uploaded.

2. 2

   Read the numbers

   You get words, characters with and without spaces, sentences, paragraphs and average word length, plus reading and speaking time.

3. 3

   Trim or expand

   The keyword list shows which words you repeat most, a quick way to spot padding when you are over the limit or a thin section when you are under it.

Word Counter estimates speaking time at about 130 words per minute, a comfortable pace for a presentation. That puts a 5 minute speech at roughly 650 words and a 10 minute talk at about 1,300 words. Silent reading is faster, around 200 words per minute, which is the reading time the counter shows.

Some limits are set in characters, not words: application text boxes, meta descriptions, text messages and social posts. For those, use Character Counter, and see the character limits guide for the numbers each platform uses.