A standard page holds roughly 500 words single-spaced and 250 words double-spaced. That's the rule of thumb, and it holds up as a conservative estimate. The real number depends on four things: the font, the font size, the line spacing and the margins. How your text is broken into paragraphs matters too. This guide gives ranges for common settings, shows exactly how they were calculated, and then turns word counts into reading times using a published research figure.
Quick answer: words per page
| Line spacing | Words per page (range) | Rule of thumb |
|---|---|---|
| Single-spaced | about 510–670 | 500 |
| 1.5-spaced | about 340–445 | — |
| Double-spaced | about 255–335 | 250 |
If you're writing to a page requirement, plan on the rule of thumb. If you're converting a word limit into pages, use the range. A 1,000-word essay in 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced, fills about 3 to 4 pages.
How these numbers were calculated
Most "words per page" figures online don't show their assumptions, which is why they disagree. These are the assumptions behind this guide:
- Page: US Letter (8.5 × 11 inches) with 1-inch margins on all sides, leaving a 6.5 × 9 inch text area (468 × 648 points).
- Fonts: Liberation Serif, Liberation Sans and Carlito. These free fonts are built with the same character widths as Times New Roman, Arial and Calibri, so lines break in the same places.
- Line height: taken from each font file's own metrics. For 12-point Times New Roman, a single-spaced line is about 13.3 points tall, which fits 48 lines on the page. Double spacing doubles the line height, so 24 lines fit.
- Text: about 11,000 words of plain English prose (this site's existing blog articles), with paragraphs averaging 60 words, a half-inch first-line indent, no headings, and no extra space between paragraphs.
- Method: every paragraph was wrapped word by word at the true character widths. Total words divided by total lines gives words per line, and words per line times lines per page gives words per page.
That makes these figures a ceiling for unbroken prose. Headings, title blocks, bullet lists, block quotes, tables and extra paragraph spacing all add white space and lower the count.
Words per page by font, size and spacing
| Font | Size | Single | 1.5 | Double |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Times New Roman | 12 pt | 667 | 445 | 334 |
| Times New Roman | 11 pt | 801 | 529 | 393 |
| Arial | 12 pt | 602 | 401 | 301 |
| Arial | 11 pt | 714 | 480 | 357 |
| Calibri | 12 pt | 607 | 400 | 304 |
| Calibri | 11 pt | 715 | 477 | 358 |
A few patterns stand out:
- Times New Roman packs the most words. Its letters are narrower than Arial's, so about 14 words fit on a 12-point line compared with about 12.5 for Arial.
- Calibri and Arial come out close at 12 points, for different reasons. Calibri is narrower than Arial, so more words fit on each line, but its taller line height fits fewer lines on the page.
- Dropping from 12 to 11 points adds roughly 18–20%, because you gain both more words per line and more lines per page.
Why short paragraphs mean fewer words per page
The last line of every paragraph is usually only partly full, and each new paragraph starts with an indent. The more paragraphs you have, the more of that half-empty space ends up on the page. Re-running the same 12-point Times New Roman model with shorter paragraphs shows how big the effect is:
| Average paragraph length | Typical of | Single-spaced | Double-spaced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 words | Essays, reports | 679 | 340 |
| 30 words | Web articles, emails | 615 | 308 |
| 15 words | Dialogue-heavy fiction, scripts, lists | 509 | 254 |
(The 60-word row here differs slightly from the table above because the text was re-split into equal-length paragraphs.) This is why the familiar 500/250 rule works best as a planning figure. It's close to what you get with lots of short paragraphs, and it builds in a margin for headings and spacing.
How many pages is it? Word count to pages
| Word count | Single-spaced pages | Double-spaced pages |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | 0.4–0.5 | 0.7–1 |
| 500 | 0.7–1 | 1.5–2 |
| 1,000 | 1.5–2 | 3–4 |
| 1,500 | 2.2–2.9 | 4.5–5.9 |
| 2,000 | 3–3.9 | 6–7.9 |
| 2,500 | 3.7–4.9 | 7.5–9.8 |
| 3,000 | 4.5–5.9 | 9–11.8 |
| 5,000 | 7.5–9.8 | 15–19.7 |
Going the other way, a 5-page double-spaced paper is roughly 1,270 to 1,670 words, and a 10-page double-spaced paper is roughly 2,540 to 3,340 words. If an assignment gives both a page count and a word count, the word count is the one to trust. It doesn't change with the font.
Paste your text to get the exact word count, character count and an estimated reading time.
Word Counter →How long does it take to read 1,000 words?
The most thorough estimate of adult reading speed comes from a 2019 meta-analysis by Marc Brysbaert in the Journal of Memory and Language, which analyzed 190 studies with 18,573 participants (doi:10.1016/j.jml.2019.104047). It found average English reading rates of:
- 238 words per minute for silent reading of non-fiction
- 260 words per minute for silent reading of fiction
- 183 words per minute for reading aloud
At those rates, 1,000 words takes about 4 minutes 12 seconds to read silently (non-fiction), about 3 minutes 51 seconds for fiction, and about 5 minutes 28 seconds to read aloud.
| Words | Non-fiction (238 wpm) | Fiction (260 wpm) | Aloud (183 wpm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 250 | 1 min 3 s | 58 s | 1 min 22 s |
| 500 | 2 min 6 s | 1 min 55 s | 2 min 44 s |
| 1,000 | 4 min 12 s | 3 min 51 s | 5 min 28 s |
| 1,500 | 6 min 18 s | 5 min 46 s | 8 min 12 s |
| 2,000 | 8 min 24 s | 7 min 42 s | 10 min 56 s |
| 2,500 | 10 min 30 s | 9 min 37 s | 13 min 40 s |
| 5,000 | 21 min 1 s | 19 min 14 s | 27 min 19 s |
| 10,000 | 42 min 1 s | 38 min 28 s | 54 min 39 s |
These are averages. Technical material, a second language, or careful study all slow reading down, and skimming speeds it up. This site's Word Counter defaults to 238 words per minute, the average for non-fiction in Brysbaert's review, and offers 200 as a slower setting.
Tips for hitting a page count honestly
- Check the required format first. Many classes and publishers specify the font, size, spacing and margins. If they do, the page count follows from the word count.
- Watch your paragraph spacing. Some word processor defaults add space after every paragraph. That can cost several lines per page compared with the model above.
- Remember that A4 differs from US Letter. A4 is narrower and taller, so the same text breaks into lines differently. Don't assume the figures carry over exactly.
- Count words, not pages. Words are the stable measure; pages move with every formatting change.
For more on how counting works, including how tools treat hyphens, contractions and emoji, see word count vs. character count. If your page count is part of a graded assignment, how to calculate your final grade shows how much that assignment is likely to move your course grade.
Frequently asked questions
How many words is a page single-spaced?
About 500 words is the usual rule of thumb. Modeled with 12-point Times New Roman on US Letter with 1-inch margins, a single-spaced page holds roughly 510 to 670 words, depending on how many short paragraphs the text has.
How many words is a page double-spaced?
About 250 words is the usual rule of thumb. The same model gives roughly 255 to 335 words for 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced, on US Letter with 1-inch margins.
How long does it take to read 1,000 words?
About 4 minutes 12 seconds at 238 words per minute, the average silent reading rate for non-fiction found in Brysbaert's 2019 meta-analysis. Fiction at 260 words per minute takes about 3 minutes 51 seconds, and reading aloud at 183 words per minute takes about 5 minutes 28 seconds.
How many pages is 1,000 words?
About 1.5 to 2 pages single-spaced, or 3 to 4 pages double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman on US Letter with 1-inch margins.
Why do different fonts give different page counts?
Fonts differ in letter width and line height. Times New Roman has narrower letters than Arial, so more words fit on each line, and a font with a taller line height fits fewer lines on the page.