Words to Pages Calculator

Find out how many pages an essay, report or manuscript will fill, or how many words you can write for a page limit. The estimate depends on the font, the font size, line spacing, paper size and margins, so the calculator works from each font’s measured letter widths and line height instead of a single fixed figure. A table compares every common font at single, 1.5 and double spacing.

How to use this tool

1. Choose “Pages from words” and enter your word count, or paste your text.
2. Pick the font, size and line spacing your assignment asks for.
3. Choose US Letter or A4 and the margins, in inches or millimetres (1 inch, 25.4 mm, is standard).
4. For a page limit, switch to “Words from pages” and enter the number of pages.

Formula

Words per page = (text width ÷ average letter width ÷ 5.64) × ⌊text height ÷ line height⌋ × 0.695

Average letter widths come from each font’s own metrics (Times New Roman letters average 0.400 em, Arial 0.442 em, Courier New 0.600 em), and an English word plus its space averages 5.64 characters. Single line height is the font’s ascender, descender and line gap (1.15 em for Arial and Times New Roman, 1.22 em for Calibri); 1.5 and double multiply it. The 0.695 factor makes 12 pt Arial, single-spaced, on Letter with 1-inch margins hold 500 words, the usual rule of thumb; it stands for paragraph endings, indents and line breaks. With that one calibration, the model also gives the other published figures: about 250 words per double-spaced Arial page and 275 per double-spaced Times New Roman page. Helvetica uses Arial’s widths, which are designed to match.

Example

With the defaults (1,000 words, 12 pt Times New Roman, double-spaced, Letter, 1-inch margins) the text area is 6.5 × 9 inches. Each line holds 468 ÷ (0.400 × 12) ≈ 98 characters, ⌊648 ÷ 27.6⌋ = 23 lines fit, and a page takes about 276 words, so 1,000 words fill about 3.6 pages (4 pages rounded up).