A page is about 500 words single spaced and 250 words double spaced, using 12 point Times New Roman and 1 inch margins on letter paper. That is a planning rule. When we filled a page with plain body text, double spacing held about 300 words. Headings, short paragraphs and long words bring it back toward 250.
The quick answer to how many words is a page is 500 words single spaced or 250 words double spaced. Teachers, editors and freelance clients use those numbers because they are easy to multiply.
But a page is not a fixed unit. The font, the spacing, the margins and even how long your words are all change the count. So we laid out real text on a letter size page in five common font settings and counted the words. The chart below shows what we found, plus a simple formula to turn any word count into pages.
How Many Words Is a Page Single and Double Spaced?
A single spaced page holds about 500 words and a double spaced page holds about 250 words in 12 point Times New Roman with 1 inch margins.
Those are planning numbers. They leave room for a title block, headings, paragraph breaks and the short last line of each paragraph. A page packed with nothing but body text holds more. In our layout test, a full double spaced page of 12 point Times New Roman held about 300 words, and a full single spaced page held about 600.
So a fair range for a typical school or work document is:
- Single spaced: 500 to 600 words per page
- 1.5 spaced: about 350 to 400 words per page
- Double spaced: 250 to 300 words per page
If an assignment says “5 pages,” plan on 1,250 to 1,500 words double spaced. Paste your draft into our word counter to see where you stand.
How Many Words Per Page by Font and Spacing?
Smaller and narrower fonts fit more words, so Calibri 11 holds the most of the common choices and Arial 12 holds the fewest.
We set plain English prose on an 8.5 × 11 inch page with 1 inch margins, a 0.5 inch first line indent and no extra space between paragraphs. We used fonts that share the exact letter widths of Times New Roman, Arial and Calibri. Counts are adjusted to an average word length of 4.6 letters, the figure reported for English nonfiction in a 2019 reading rate review.
| Font and size | Lines per page (single / double) | Single spaced | 1.5 spaced | Double spaced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Times New Roman 12 | 46 / 23 | 603 | 406 | 301 |
| Arial 11 | 51 / 25 | 658 | 438 | 322 |
| Arial 12 | 46 / 23 | 549 | 370 | 274 |
| Calibri 11 | 48 / 24 | 675 | 450 | 338 |
| Calibri 12 | 44 / 22 | 566 | 373 | 283 |
Words on a page full of body text, no title or headings. Real documents usually land 10 to 20% lower. Apps can differ by a line or two.
Notice that switching from Times New Roman 12 to Arial 12 costs you about 27 words per double spaced page. Over a 10 page paper, that is roughly one extra page with the same text. Font choice alone can change a page count, which is why many instructors set a word count instead.
How Do You Estimate Page Count From a Word Count?
Divide your word count by the words per page for your font and spacing, and round up to the next full page.
Words per page = words per line × lines per page
Lines per page = 648 points of text height ÷ line height in points
Letter paper with 1 inch margins leaves 9 inches of text height, and 9 × 72 = 648 points. Times New Roman’s built in line height is about 1.15 times its size, or 13.8 points at 12 point, so 648 ÷ 13.8 gives 46 full lines. Double that line height and you get 23 lines. Each line holds about 13 words of typical prose.
You wrote a 1,500 word essay in Times New Roman 12, double spaced. How many pages is it?
- Planning rule: 1,500 ÷ 250 = 6.0 pages.
- Full page of body text: 1,500 ÷ 301 = 4.98, so about 5 pages.
- Add the title block and a heading or two, and the real answer lands between the two.
- A references page, if required, adds at least 1 more page.
Expect 5 to 6 pages of body text. If you must reach 6 full pages, plan on writing closer to 1,700 to 1,800 words.
How Many Pages Is 500, 1,000 or 2,000 Words?
At the standard planning rule, 500 words is 1 page single spaced or 2 pages double spaced, and 1,000 words is 2 or 4 pages.
| Words | Single spaced (500 per page) | Double spaced (250 per page) | Double spaced, full text (301 per page) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 250 | 0.5 | 1 | 0.8 |
| 500 | 1 | 2 | 1.7 |
| 750 | 1.5 | 3 | 2.5 |
| 1,000 | 2 | 4 | 3.3 |
| 1,500 | 3 | 6 | 5.0 |
| 2,000 | 4 | 8 | 6.6 |
| 2,500 | 5 | 10 | 8.3 |
| 3,000 | 6 | 12 | 10.0 |
| 5,000 | 10 | 20 | 16.6 |
Times New Roman 12, 1 inch margins. The last column uses our measured full page figure.
Use the middle column when someone gives you a page target and you want to be safe. Use the last column when you want to know how full your pages will really look.
What Format Do APA Papers Use for Font and Spacing?
APA 7th edition student papers are double spaced throughout with 1 inch margins and one of a short list of fonts, such as 12 point Times New Roman or 11 point Calibri.
University library guides based on the APA Publication Manual list these accepted fonts: 11 point Calibri, 11 point Arial, 10 point Lucida Sans Unicode, 12 point Times New Roman and 11 point Georgia. The first line of each paragraph is indented 0.5 inch, and there is no extra space added between paragraphs.
That choice matters for length. Our chart shows Calibri 11 holding about 338 words per full double spaced page versus about 301 for Times New Roman 12. Both are allowed, so two students with the same word count can turn in different page counts. If your teacher sets a page minimum, ask which font they expect.
Why Is My Page Count Different From the Estimate?
Your page count drifts from the estimate because of spacing settings, headings, paragraph length and word length, not just the word count.
- Space after paragraphs. Some word processor templates add a few points after every paragraph. Over a page, that can push a line or two to the next page. Set it to 0 for school formats.
- Margins. With 1.25 inch side margins instead of 1 inch, the line shrinks from 6.5 to 6 inches. That is about 8% fewer words on every line, or roughly 23 fewer words on a double spaced Times New Roman page.
- Short paragraphs and dialogue. Each paragraph ends with a partly empty line. Lots of short ones use up lines fast.
- Long words. Technical and academic writing uses longer words, so fewer fit on a line. A text full of 7 and 8 letter terms can drop well under 250 words per double spaced page.
- Block quotes, lists and tables. These add white space and indents.
- Title pages and references. They count as pages but add few body words.
Count characters too if you face a strict space limit; our character counter shows both. For readability checks, see our guide on how to count syllables and the Flesch Reading Ease score.
How Long Does It Take to Read or Say a Page?
A double spaced page of 250 words takes about 1 minute to read silently and about 1.4 to 1.8 minutes to read out loud.
A 2019 review of 190 studies by Marc Brysbaert found adults read English nonfiction silently at about 238 words per minute and read aloud at about 183 words per minute. It also cites audiobooks at about 140 to 180 words per minute.
| Page | Silent (238 wpm) | Aloud (183 wpm) | Speech pace (140 to 180 wpm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Double spaced, 250 words | 1.1 min | 1.4 min | 1.4 to 1.8 min |
| Single spaced, 500 words | 2.1 min | 2.7 min | 2.8 to 3.6 min |
So a 5 minute talk needs roughly 700 to 900 words, which is about 3 to 3.6 double spaced pages. Time your own pace once and adjust; the minutes to hours converter helps with longer scripts.
Quick Recap
- Plan on 500 words per single spaced page and 250 per double spaced page.
- A full page of Times New Roman 12 body text holds about 600 single or 300 double spaced.
- Calibri 11 fits the most words; Arial 12 fits the fewest of the common fonts.
- Pages = words ÷ words per page, then round up.
- Headings, short paragraphs and long words lower the real count.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many pages is 1,000 words?
About 2 pages single spaced or 4 pages double spaced, using the common rule of 500 and 250 words per page. In 12 point Times New Roman, a page of pure body text fits a little more, so 1,000 words may fill about 3.3 double spaced pages.
How many words is a page double spaced?
About 250 words is the standard planning figure for 12 point Times New Roman with 1 inch margins. In our layout test, a full page of body text held about 300 words, with 23 lines per page. Headings and short paragraphs bring it down toward 250.
How many words is a page in Arial 12?
Arial 12 is wider than Times New Roman, so it fits fewer words. Our measured full page held about 549 words single spaced and 274 double spaced, assuming 1 inch margins and plain body text with average length words.
How many words is a 5 page paper?
About 1,250 words double spaced or 2,500 words single spaced at the usual planning rule. With 12 point Times New Roman and very few headings, 5 full double spaced pages can hold around 1,500 words.
Does font size change words per page?
Yes, a lot. Moving from Calibri 11 to Calibri 12 dropped our full double spaced page from about 338 to 283 words, a 16% cut. Larger type means fewer characters per line and fewer lines per page.
How many words is a handwritten page?
There is no reliable standard because handwriting size and paper vary so much. The best way is to count the words on one of your own full pages and multiply by your page count.
How many lines are on a double spaced page?
With 12 point Times New Roman and 1 inch margins on letter paper, a double spaced page holds about 23 lines of text. Single spaced, it holds about 46 lines.
Sources
- Towson University Libraries: APA 7th Edition Paper Checklist, APA accepted fonts and sizes, double spacing, 1 inch margins, 0.5 inch indent
- UNT Dallas Library: APA 7 General Formatting, no extra space between paragraphs, left aligned text, 1 inch margins
- Brysbaert (2019), How many words do we read per minute? Journal of Memory and Language (PDF), 238 wpm silent and 183 wpm aloud reading rates, 4.6 letter average word length for nonfiction, audiobook pace