Live counts of words, characters, sentences and paragraphs, plus reading time and your most used words, all private in your browser.
Assignments are set in words, but we picture them in pages. Here’s how the two convert under standard formatting, and what changes the answer.
The quick answer
With 12 pt Times New Roman, 1-inch margins, US Letter or A4:
- Single-spaced: about 500 words per page
- Double-spaced: about 250 words per page
Word count to pages chart
| Words | Single-spaced | Double-spaced |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | ½ page | 1 page |
| 500 | 1 page | 2 pages |
| 750 | 1½ pages | 3 pages |
| 1,000 | 2 pages | 4 pages |
| 1,500 | 3 pages | 6 pages |
| 2,000 | 4 pages | 8 pages |
| 2,500 | 5 pages | 10 pages |
| 3,000 | 6 pages | 12 pages |
| 5,000 | 10 pages | 20 pages |
| 10,000 | 20 pages | 40 pages |
Pages to word count
Working backwards, a 5-page double-spaced essay is about 1,250 words, and a 10-page single-spaced report is about 5,000 words.
What changes the result
Font
Fonts differ in width. At 12 pt, double-spaced:
| Font | Approx. words per page |
|---|---|
| Times New Roman | 250–275 |
| Calibri | 250–300 |
| Arial | 230–250 |
| Courier New | 200–220 |
Font size
Moving from 12 pt to 11 pt fits roughly 15–20% more words per page; 14 pt fits around 25% fewer.
Paragraphs, headings and lists
Short paragraphs, headings, bullet points, quotes and tables all add white space. Dialogue-heavy fiction can drop to under 200 words per double-spaced page.
Page size
A4 is slightly taller and narrower than US Letter, so the totals end up almost identical.
Typical lengths
| Type | Typical word count |
|---|---|
| Tweet / short social post | 25–50 |
| Cover letter | 250–400 |
| College application essay | 250–650 |
| School essay | 500–1,500 |
| Blog post | 800–2,000 |
| In-depth article / guide | 1,500–3,000 |
| Undergraduate dissertation | 8,000–12,000 |
| Mister’s thesis | 15,000–25,000 |
| Short story | 1,000–7,500 |
| Novella | 17,500–40,000 |
| Novel | 70,000–100,000 |
Writing to a word limit
- Most institutions allow about ±10% of the limit, but some are strict, so check.
- Count only what’s assessed: references, footnotes and appendices are usually excluded. Paste just the main text into the word counter.
- Over the limit? Cut adverbs, repeated points and long introductions first. The most used words panel shows where you’re repeating yourself.
Time to read and speak
1,000 words take about 4 minutes to read silently and about 7 minutes to speak aloud at presentation pace. See How Reading Time Is Calculated (Words per Minute Explained) for how these estimates work.
Paste your draft below to see its word count, reading time and page estimate at a glance.
Try it: Word Counter
Most used words
- Start typing to see word frequency.
Live counts of words, characters, sentences and paragraphs, plus reading time and your most used words, all private in your browser.