1,000 words is about 1.5 pages single-spaced and about 3 pages double-spaced (2.9 to be exact). That is with 12-point Times New Roman, 1-inch margins and standard US Letter paper. On A4 paper it is a little less: about 1.4 pages single-spaced and 2.8 pages double-spaced.
Many websites say 1,000 double-spaced words take 4 pages. That comes from an old rule of 250 words per page, which only fits typewriter-style fonts. We tested it on real text in nine common fonts. Below are the results, plus quick tables for other word counts and page targets.
- Single-spaced, Times New Roman 12: about 1.5 pages (about 690 words per page)
- 1.5-spaced, Times New Roman 12: about 2.2 pages (about 460 words per page)
- Double-spaced, Times New Roman 12: about 2.9 pages (about 340 words per page)
- Double-spaced, Arial 12: about 3.2 pages (about 315 words per page)
- Double-spaced, Courier New 12: about 4.3 pages (about 230 words per page)
All figures use US Letter paper and 1-inch margins unless marked A4. “2.9 pages” means the text runs a little way onto a third page.
Pages per 1,000 words by font and spacing
Your font changes the answer more than most people expect. Times New Roman is a narrow font, so more words fit on each line. Verdana and Courier New are wide, so the same words need more lines and more pages.
| Font and size | Single-spaced | 1.5-spaced | Double-spaced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Times New Roman 12 | 1.5 pages | 2.2 pages | 2.9 pages |
| Calibri 11 | 1.3 pages | 1.9 pages | 2.6 pages |
| Calibri 12 | 1.5 pages | 2.3 pages | 3.1 pages |
| Arial 11 | 1.3 pages | 2.0 pages | 2.7 pages |
| Arial 12 | 1.6 pages | 2.4 pages | 3.2 pages |
| Georgia 11 | 1.3 pages | 2.0 pages | 2.7 pages |
| Georgia 12 | 1.6 pages | 2.4 pages | 3.2 pages |
| Verdana 12 | 1.9 pages | 2.9 pages | 3.8 pages |
| Courier New 12 | 2.1 pages | 3.2 pages | 4.3 pages |
How many pages is 1,000 words on A4 paper?
About 1.4 pages single-spaced and 2.8 pages double-spaced in Times New Roman 12. A4 is a little narrower than US Letter but taller. The extra lines on each page more than make up for the slightly shorter lines.
| Font and size (A4) | Single-spaced | 1.5-spaced | Double-spaced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Times New Roman 12 | 1.4 pages | 2.1 pages | 2.8 pages |
| Calibri 11 | 1.3 pages | 1.9 pages | 2.6 pages |
| Arial 11 | 1.3 pages | 1.9 pages | 2.6 pages |
| Arial 12 | 1.5 pages | 2.3 pages | 3.0 pages |
| Georgia 12 | 1.5 pages | 2.2 pages | 3.0 pages |
| Verdana 12 | 1.9 pages | 2.8 pages | 3.8 pages |
| Courier New 12 | 2.0 pages | 3.0 pages | 4.1 pages |
Why do other sites say 1,000 words is 4 pages?
Because they use the old rule of 250 words per double-spaced page. That rule is real, but it comes from typewriters. On a typewriter, every letter takes up the same width. Fonts like that are called monospaced, and Courier New is one of them. In our test, double-spaced Courier New 12 held about 232 words per page, very close to the old rule.
Most fonts today are proportional. Thin letters like “i” and “l” take up less space than wide ones like “m” and “w”. That is why Times New Roman fits about 340 words on the same double-spaced page. So “4 pages” is a safe overestimate, but it is not the real count. If you are writing to a page target, the difference is close to a full page.
How many words do you need for a page target?
Got a page limit instead of a word limit? A 5-page double-spaced essay is about 1,700 words in Times New Roman 12. A 10-page paper is about 3,400 words. Use this table for other page counts.
| Pages | Double-spaced (Times New Roman 12) | Single-spaced (Times New Roman 12) | Double-spaced (Calibri 11) | Double-spaced, A4 (Times New Roman 12) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 page | 340 words | 690 words | 390 words | 360 words |
| 2 pages | 690 words | 1,370 words | 770 words | 720 words |
| 3 pages | 1,030 words | 2,060 words | 1,160 words | 1,090 words |
| 4 pages | 1,370 words | 2,750 words | 1,550 words | 1,450 words |
| 5 pages | 1,720 words | 3,430 words | 1,940 words | 1,810 words |
| 8 pages | 2,750 words | 5,490 words | 3,100 words | 2,900 words |
| 10 pages | 3,430 words | 6,860 words | 3,870 words | 3,620 words |
| 15 pages | 5,150 words | 10,300 words | 5,810 words | 5,430 words |
| 20 pages | 6,870 words | 13,730 words | 7,740 words | 7,250 words |
Words to pages for other word counts
Going the other way, here is how many pages common word counts fill. To check your own draft, paste it into the Justwebworld Word Counter and divide by the words per page for your settings.
| Words | Single-spaced (Times New Roman 12) | Double-spaced (Times New Roman 12) | Double-spaced (Calibri 11) | Double-spaced, A4 (Times New Roman 12) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 250 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.7 |
| 500 | 0.7 | 1.5 | 1.3 | 1.4 |
| 750 | 1.1 | 2.2 | 1.9 | 2.1 |
| 1,000 | 1.5 | 2.9 | 2.6 | 2.8 |
| 1,500 | 2.2 | 4.4 | 3.9 | 4.1 |
| 2,000 | 2.9 | 5.8 | 5.2 | 5.5 |
| 2,500 | 3.6 | 7.3 | 6.5 | 6.9 |
| 3,000 | 4.4 | 8.7 | 7.7 | 8.3 |
| 4,000 | 5.8 | 11.7 | 10.3 | 11.0 |
| 5,000 | 7.3 | 14.6 | 12.9 | 13.8 |
| 10,000 | 14.6 | 29.1 | 25.8 | 27.6 |
What changes the page count
Six settings decide how many pages your words fill. Here they are, biggest effect first:
- Line spacing. Double spacing fits half as many lines on a page as single spacing. Nothing else changes the count as much.
- Font. Switching from Times New Roman 12 to Courier New 12 adds almost 50% more pages.
- Font size. Going from Calibri 11 to Calibri 12 adds about 20% more pages. Each line holds fewer words, and each page holds fewer lines.
- Margins. Wider margins make every line shorter. Many assignments set the margins, so check before you change them.
- Paper size. A4 holds slightly more text per page than US Letter with the same settings.
- Paragraphs and headings. Every paragraph ends on a part-empty line. Every heading takes space without adding words.
How to check the page count of your own document
Your word processor can tell you the exact count for your settings. That beats any table, including ours.
- Microsoft Word: look at the status bar at the bottom of the window. It shows the page you are on, the total pages and the word count. Click the word count to see more details.
- Google Docs: click Tools, then Word count. The box shows pages, words and characters.
Set the font, size, spacing and margins your teacher or client asked for before you check. Otherwise the page count will be wrong.
MLA and APA papers
Both main academic styles use double spacing and 1-inch margins. So for most student papers, the double-spaced column is the one to use.
- MLA (9th edition) asks for double spacing, 1-inch margins and an easy-to-read font, such as 12-point Times New Roman. That gives about 2.9 pages per 1,000 words. The four-line heading on page one adds a little more. Our MLA heading format guide shows what that heading looks like.
- APA (7th edition) lists several fonts you can use, including 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode, 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia and 10-point Computer Modern. Double-spaced, Calibri 11 gives about 2.6 pages per 1,000 words and Times New Roman 12 about 2.9. Your font choice alone changes the length by about a third of a page per 1,000 words.
Need more pages? Don’t stretch the font size or margins. Most assignments set them, and changing them can break the rules. Add content instead. For help with that, see these guides on writing an essay outline, essay structure, writing a successful essay and using transition words in college papers. For longer projects, see these dissertation tips and steps for writing a strong assignment.
How we tested it
Most pages on this topic repeat the same numbers without saying where they came from. Here is exactly what we did in October 2026.
- Text. We used four free, public-domain books from Project Gutenberg: Walden, The Federalist Papers and On the Origin of Species (non-fiction) and Pride and Prejudice (fiction). We cut them into overlapping passages of exactly 1,000 words: 295 non-fiction passages and 393 fiction passages.
- Paragraphs. Non-fiction passages were set as essay-style paragraphs of 120 words, each with a half-inch indent on the first line. The fiction kept its original paragraphs, including dialogue.
- Fonts. Letter widths came from the real font files that come with Windows. So each line breaks where it would in a word processor using that font.
- Line height. We took this from each font’s own settings. For 12-point Times New Roman, a single-spaced line is about 13.8 points tall, which matches Microsoft Word. Double spacing is twice that, which gives 23 lines on a US Letter page.
- Page. 1-inch margins on every side, text lined up on the left, no hyphenation, and no headings or title.
We also tried paragraphs of 80 and 180 words. The double-spaced Times New Roman result moved by less than 0.2 pages, so paragraph length doesn’t change the answer much. Most single passages landed within about 8% of the middle value. Fiction with lots of dialogue ran about 3% longer, because short lines of speech leave white space at the end of each line.
Real documents usually run a little longer than our figures. A title, headings, quotes, bullet lists and a reference list all take space. Word also moves single stray lines to the next page by default (called widow and orphan control). Google Docs and other editors may space lines slightly differently from Word.
How many pages is 1,000 words handwritten?
There is no reliable average, because handwriting varies far more than fonts do. Here is a quick way to find your own number. Count the words on five full lines of your writing and divide by five. That is your words per line. Multiply it by the number of lines on your page. If you write 10 words per line on a 30-line page, that is about 300 words per page. So 1,000 words would fill a little over three sides.
How many pages is 1,000 words in a book?
It depends on the book’s page size, font and layout, and these vary a lot between publishers. Any single number would be misleading. That is why writers and publishers talk about manuscripts in word counts, not pages. The traditional manuscript format of double-spaced, typewriter-style text is where the “250 words per page” rule comes from.
For full-length books, see our guide to how many words are in a novel, with real counts for 20 famous books.
Frequently asked questions
How many pages is 500 words?
About 0.7 pages single-spaced and 1.5 pages double-spaced in Times New Roman 12 with 1-inch margins.
How many pages is 1,500 words?
About 2.2 pages single-spaced and 4.4 pages double-spaced in Times New Roman 12 on US Letter. On A4, double-spaced, it is about 4.1 pages.
How many pages is 2,000 words?
About 2.9 pages single-spaced and 5.8 pages double-spaced in Times New Roman 12 on US Letter. On A4, double-spaced, it is about 5.5 pages.
How many words fit on one page?
About 690 words single-spaced and 340 words double-spaced in Times New Roman 12 with 1-inch margins. In Calibri 11, it is about 770 and 390 words.
Is 1,000 words 2 pages?
Only if it is single-spaced. Single-spaced, 1,000 words fits on two pages in every common font except Courier New. Double-spaced, it runs to about three pages in Times New Roman 12.
How many paragraphs is 1,000 words?
Usually six to ten. With essay paragraphs of 100 to 150 words, you get about seven to ten. With longer paragraphs, five or six.
How long does it take to read or say 1,000 words?
About 4 minutes to read silently. That is based on the average adult silent reading speed of 238 words per minute for non-fiction, from psychologist Marc Brysbaert’s 2019 review of 190 studies. Reading it aloud takes about 5.5 minutes. Giving it as a speech takes about 7 minutes. See our guide to how many words fit in a speech, or estimate any text with the Reading Time Calculator.
