How Many Words Per Page? The Arithmetic for Every Format

"It depends" is the honest answer to how many words fit on a page, and it's useless on its own. So here's the arithmetic instead. Every figure below comes from a stated assumption you can change, and the method at the end gives you the exact number for any book in about a minute.

The short answer

The arithmetic, step by step

Take the standard manuscript format: US Letter paper (8.5 × 11 inches), 1-inch margins and 12-point Courier, double-spaced. Courier is used here because it's monospaced, so the maths is exact.

1. Characters per line. 12-point Courier sets exactly 10 characters per inch. A 6.5-inch line holds 65 characters.
2. Words per line. An English word plus its following space averages roughly 6 characters. This is our assumption, so change it for very technical or very simple text. 65 ÷ 6 ≈ 10.8 words per full line.
3. Lines per page. Double spacing at 12 points means a 24-point line, which is one third of an inch. Nine inches of text height gives 27 lines.
4. Full-page maximum. 27 × 10.8 ≈ 293 words if every line ran edge to edge.
5. Real pages aren't full. Paragraph endings, indents and short lines of dialogue leave gaps. Assume lines are about 85% full on average and you get roughly 249 words.

That's why around 250 words per double-spaced page is the long-standing rule of thumb.

Single-spaced and A4

Single spacing halves the line height, so the same page holds 54 lines. The full-page maximum is about 585 words, or about 500 at 85% full.

A4 is narrower and taller than Letter (210 × 297 mm). With 2.54 cm margins the line is about 6.27 inches, or 62.7 characters, which is about 10.5 words. The text height of 9.69 inches gives 29 double-spaced lines. That works out to a maximum of about 303 words, or roughly 260 at 85% full: slightly more than Letter.

Font size changes it more than you think

Change the type size and both the characters per line and the lines per page change, so the effect is squared. With monospaced type and line spacing that scales with the font, words per page scale with (12 ÷ font size)²:

• 10 pt: × 1.44, so a double-spaced page holds about 360 words.
• 11 pt: × 1.19, so about 295.
• 12 pt: the baseline, about 250.
• 14 pt: × 0.73, so about 180.

Proportional fonts like Times New Roman fit more characters on a line than Courier does, so the same settings in Times New Roman hold more words. How many more depends on the text. Count a line of your own document to check.

Printed books: two worked examples

Printed books don't follow a manuscript standard, so any single figure is a guess. These two examples show the spread, and every number in them is an assumption:

• Dense non-fiction paperback. A text block of 4.5 × 7.25 inches, 11-point type on 14-point line spacing (37 lines), about 12 words per full line, and lines about 90% full. That gives roughly 400 words.
• Dialogue-heavy mass-market novel. A text block of 3.5 × 6 inches, 10-point type on 12-point spacing (36 lines), about 9 words per full line, and lines about 75% full because of short dialogue lines. That gives roughly 240 words.

Same "page", nearly double the words. It's why the site's How Long to Read calculator starts at 250 words a page as an assumption, not a measurement, and lets you change it.

Count your own book in a minute

The only exact answer for a specific book is to count it:

1. Open to a full page of normal text, not a chapter opening or a page of dialogue.
2. Count the words on three full lines and divide by three.
3. Count the lines on the page.
4. Multiply the two. Then knock off around 10% if the book has a lot of dialogue or short paragraphs.

Ebooks and screens have no fixed page

On an e-reader or a phone, text reflows to fit the screen and the font size the reader chooses, so a "page" holds a different number of words for every reader. That's why reading apps tend to show a percentage, a location or an estimated time left rather than a fixed page count. For ebooks, word count is the only stable measure of length, and reading time is the more useful one.

Pages for common word counts

At 250 words per double-spaced page and 500 per single-spaced page:

For how long novels typically run, see how many words are in a novel.

From pages to reading time

Words per page is half of the reading-time sum; reading speed is the other half. The average adult reads about 238 words per minute for non-fiction, so a 250-word page takes about a minute. Take the reading speed test to get your own number, then put both into the How Long to Read calculator. For a quick reference, see how long it takes to read 300 pages.

FAQ

How many words per page is double-spaced?

About 250 words on a US Letter page with 1-inch margins and 12-point type, double-spaced. Larger fonts or wider margins lower it; smaller fonts raise it.

How many words per page is single-spaced?

About 500 words with the same settings, because single spacing fits twice as many lines.

How many words are on a page of a book?

There's no single standard. Under the assumptions above, a dialogue-heavy paperback page holds around 240 words and a dense non-fiction page around 400. Count three lines of your own copy for the exact figure.

How many words per page are in a novel?

It depends heavily on the edition. Dialogue leaves many lines short, so novels usually hold fewer words per page than dense non-fiction in the same format. The dialogue-heavy example above works out at around 240. For a specific novel, count three lines and multiply.

How many pages is 1,000 words?

About 4 pages double-spaced or 2 pages single-spaced, using 12-point type and 1-inch margins.

Use the numbers

Once you know your words per page and your reading speed, you can work out how long any book will take, and how many books you have time for. Try the Lifetime Reading Calculator to see that number for your life.

To turn words per page into minutes, start from the average reading speed, or test your own.