How Many Words Are in X Pages?
A single-spaced page in 12 pt Times New Roman holds about 550 words, and a double-spaced page about 275. Convert words to pages or pages to words, and pick your font, size and line spacing for a closer estimate.UpdatedFont
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About 1,650 words550 words per page · Times New Roman 12 pt · Single
The formula behind words per page
A standard US Letter page (8.5 x 11 inches) with 1-inch margins gives you a writing area of 6.5 x 9 inches. In 12pt Times New Roman, that area holds about 500 words single-spaced and 250 words double-spaced. The numbers shift with the typeface: Arial is wider per character, so it fits roughly 6% fewer words per page at the same point size.Academic writing conventions are surprisingly standardized around these defaults. MLA and APA style guides both recommend 12pt Times New Roman, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, the exact configuration that produces 250 words per page. Most grade-level assignments assume this setup. If your instructor specifies five pages, they almost always mean around 1,250 words.The estimates in this calculator align with the reference numbers published by the Purdue OWL and with word-per-page tables used across US university writing centers.Common assignment reference chart
A quick lookup for word-count expectations across common academic assignments. Use these as rough anchors: your specific class guidelines always take precedence.| Assignment | Word count | Pages (Times 12pt) |
|---|---|---|
| Common App essay | 250-650 | 0.5-1.5 pages double-spaced |
| Short response paper | 500-1,000 | 2-4 pages double-spaced |
| College essay assignment | 1,500-2,500 | 6-10 pages double-spaced |
| Seminar research paper | 4,000-7,000 | 16-28 pages double-spaced |
| Master's thesis chapter | 8,000-15,000 | 32-60 pages double-spaced |
| Doctoral thesis | 60,000-100,000 | 240-400 pages double-spaced |
Font and spacing impact
The font and spacing you choose can change your page count by 30% or more across the same document. A 2,500-word essay in 12pt Times double-spaced runs exactly 10 pages. The same essay in 12pt Arial 1.5-spaced runs 7.1 pages. In 11pt Times single-spaced, it is 4.5 pages. These are not rounding errors: they are enough to cross a word-count or page-count threshold.Most academic submissions lock the font and spacing for exactly this reason. If an assignment says five pages, the implicit assumption is 12pt Times (or Arial) double-spaced with 1-inch margins. Submitting the same content in 10pt Arial single-spaced technically meets the word count but not the intent of the assignment.How the calculator works
This tool runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, there is no account, and there is no signup. Enter a word count to see the page total, or enter a page count to see the word total, then adjust font, size, and spacing to match your assignment.- Supports both directions: words to pages and pages to words
- Adjustable font, point size, and line spacing
- Free, in-browser, and instant with no signup
Frequently asked questions
500 words is roughly 1 page single-spaced or 2 pages double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman with standard 1-inch margins. This is the typical minimum for a short response essay or college application prompt.
1,000 words is about 2 pages single-spaced or 4 pages double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman. Most medium college assignments, such as reading responses and short analyses, land in this range.
1,500 words is about 3 pages single-spaced or 6 pages double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman. A typical 5-page double-spaced essay asks for around 1,250 words; a 6-page essay asks for around 1,500.
2,000 words is about 4 pages single-spaced or 8 pages double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman. This is the common length for a mid-semester research paper in humanities courses.
5,000 words is about 10 pages single-spaced or 20 pages double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman. Graduate-level seminar papers typically run 4,000 to 7,000 words.
10,000 words is about 20 pages single-spaced or 40 pages double-spaced. Most master's thesis chapters run 8,000 to 15,000 words; a full thesis is typically 20,000 to 40,000 words depending on the program.
Arial is a wider typeface: each character takes up more horizontal space at the same point size. At 12pt, Times New Roman fits roughly 500 words per single-spaced page while Arial fits roughly 470. The difference compounds to whole pages in long documents.
Yes. The word-per-page numbers assume standard 1-inch margins on a US Letter page with typical paragraph spacing. Larger margins, heavy block quotes, or lots of short paragraphs will reduce your effective words per page by 10 to 20 percent.