Words to Pages Calculator

Page count from a word count depends on three variables: font size, line spacing, and margins. At the most common academic standard — 12pt Times New Roman, double-spaced, 1-inch margins on US Letter paper — approximately 250 words fit per page. Change any one of those variables and the count changes meaningfully.

How it works

Inputs: font size (pt), line spacing (×), margins (in), word count

Text block height = (11 in - 2 × margin_in) × 72 pt/in
Line height       = font_size_pt × spacing_factor
Lines per page    = floor(text_block_height / line_height)

Text block width  = (8.5 in - 2 × margin_in) × 72 pt/in
Chars per line    ≈ text_block_width / (font_size × 0.5)
Words per line    = chars_per_line / 6   (avg English word ≈ 5 chars + 1 space)

Words per page    = lines_per_page × words_per_line
Pages             = word_count / words_per_page

Results are estimates based on geometric font approximations. Actual page count in a word processor may vary by ±10% due to kerning, hyphenation, and paragraph spacing.

Practical examples

Example 1 — Standard college essay, 5 pages double-spaced. At 12pt, double, 1" margins ≈ 250 words/page: 5 pages × 250 = approximately 1,250 words.

Example 2 — Novel manuscript standard format. Publishers request 12pt Courier, double-spaced, 1" margins. At these settings, one manuscript page ≈ 250 words. A 90,000-word novel = approximately 360 manuscript pages.

Example 3 — Single-spaced business report. 12pt Times, single-spaced, 1" margins ≈ 500 words/page. A 3,000-word report fills approximately 6 pages single-spaced or 12 pages double-spaced.

Common mistakes

• Comparing word counts across different format standards. A "5-page paper" means different things in single-spaced and double-spaced formats. Always specify the formatting when giving a page requirement — or give a word count instead.
• Using word count targets from digital publishing as manuscript targets. A Medium article of "5-minute read" (≈1,200 words) is far shorter than 5 pages of manuscript. Digital and print word counts serve different purposes.
• Not accounting for headers, footers, and block quotes. This calculator estimates body text only. Headers, images, footnotes, bibliographies, and block quotes all affect page count in ways that vary by style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

International and regional variations