How many pages is 1,000 words? It's about 2 pages single-spaced or 4 pages double-spaced, using 12-point Times New Roman and 1-inch margins on a standard letter-size sheet. In 1.5 line spacing it comes to about 3 pages.
Those numbers are rules of thumb, and they're deliberately generous. When we set 1,000 words of ordinary prose in real fonts, it often took fewer pages than the rule suggests. Below you'll find a full words-to-pages chart, the results of that test, and the settings that push your page count up or down.
How many pages is 1,000 words double spaced?
About 4 pages. Double spacing roughly halves what fits on a page, so the 500-word single-spaced page becomes a 250-word double-spaced page, and 1,000 ÷ 250 = 4.
Double spacing is what most school and college papers ask for. Both MLA and APA call for double-spaced text on 8.5 × 11-inch paper with 1-inch margins, and MLA suggests a legible font such as 12-point Times New Roman (Purdue OWL, MLA General Format; Purdue OWL, APA General Format). If your teacher says "a 4-page paper," they usually mean about 1,000 words in that format.
How many pages is 1,000 words single spaced?
About 2 pages. Single spacing is common for business documents, reports, letters and blog drafts. In 12-point Times New Roman with 1-inch margins, a full single-spaced page usually holds 500 words or more, so 1,000 words spills just onto a second page or fills it.
Words to pages chart: 250 to 10,000 words
Use this table when you have a word count and need a page estimate, or the reverse. It assumes 12-point Times New Roman or a similar font, 1-inch margins and letter-size paper.
Word count | Single-spaced (500/page) | 1.5-spaced (333/page) | Double-spaced (250/page) |
|---|---|---|---|
250 words | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1 |
500 words | 1 | 1.5 | 2 |
750 words | 1.5 | 2.2 | 3 |
1,000 words | 2 | 3 | 4 |
1,500 words | 3 | 4.5 | 6 |
2,000 words | 4 | 6 | 8 |
2,500 words | 5 | 7.5 | 10 |
3,000 words | 6 | 9 | 12 |
4,000 words | 8 | 12 | 16 |
5,000 words | 10 | 15 | 20 |
7,500 words | 15 | 22.5 | 30 |
10,000 words | 20 | 30 | 40 |
For any other number, divide. A 3,500-word report is 3,500 ÷ 500 = 7 single-spaced pages or 3,500 ÷ 250 = 14 double-spaced pages. To go from pages to words, multiply: 6 double-spaced pages × 250 = 1,500 words. The Words Per Page calculator does this for you with your own font, size, spacing and margins.
How many words is 1, 2, 4 or 5 pages?
Working backwards from a page count is just as common, especially for school papers set in pages. Using the same setup (12-point Times New Roman, 1-inch margins), a single-spaced page holds about 500 words and a double-spaced page about 250:
Pages | Words single spaced | Words double spaced |
|---|---|---|
Half a page | 250 | 125 |
1 page | 500 | 250 |
2 pages | 1,000 | 500 |
3 pages | 1,500 | 750 |
4 pages | 2,000 | 1,000 |
5 pages | 2,500 | 1,250 |
10 pages | 5,000 | 2,500 |
20 pages | 10,000 | 5,000 |
So a 5-page paper double spaced is about 1,250 words, and a 4-page double-spaced paper is about 1,000, the same length as this article's question. Paste your draft into the Words Per Page Calculator to check it against your own font and spacing.
Is 1,000 words really 4 pages? What our test showed
The 500 and 250 figures are planning numbers, not measurements. To see how close they are, we set 1,000 words of ordinary prose in continuous paragraphs of about 120 words, on letter-size paper with 1-inch margins, and counted the pages. We used LibreOffice with the Liberation fonts, which are built to match the widths of Times New Roman, Arial and Courier New so that documents keep the same layout (Liberation Fonts).
In Times New Roman, 12 pt, a full double-spaced page held about 350 words, so 1,000 words took about 2.9 pages, not 4. Single-spaced, a page held about 700 words. Arial is wider, so it fit fewer words per page, and Courier New, a typewriter font where every letter takes the same space, landed almost exactly on the 250-word rule.
So why does everyone still say 4 pages? Because real papers aren't pure text. When we reran the test with short, web-style paragraphs and bullet points, the same 1,000 words grew to 3.5 double-spaced pages. Add an MLA heading block, a title, a couple of section headings and a block quote, and 4 pages is about right. The rule of thumb builds in that slack, which is what you want when you're planning.
How font, spacing and margins change the page count
Three settings do most of the work: the font, the line spacing and the margins. Here is how much each one moved the count in our test.
Font and font size
Two fonts at the same point size can fill very different amounts of space. Point size sets the height of the letters, not their width, so a wide font like Arial or Verdana runs longer than a narrow one like Times New Roman. That's why some teachers name the font along with the page count.
Size matters even more. Here's what happened to 1,000 single-spaced words in Times New Roman as we changed only the font size:
Font size | Words per page | Pages for 1,000 words |
|---|---|---|
10 pt | about 1,050 | 0.9 |
11 pt | about 840 | 1.2 |
12 pt | about 700 | 1.4 |
14 pt | about 530 | 1.9 |
Going from 12 pt to 14 pt costs about a third more pages. Going down to 11 pt saves a sixth. If you're asked for a fixed number of pages, the font size is the first thing to check, and changing it to hit a target is easy for a reader to spot.
Also check your defaults. A new document in Microsoft Word doesn't start in 12-point Times New Roman: Aptos is now the default font across Office (Microsoft Support). If an assignment specifies a font, change it before you judge your length.
Line spacing
Line spacing is the biggest single factor. Same text, same 12-point Times New Roman, same margins:
Line spacing | Words per page | Pages for 1,000 words |
|---|---|---|
Single (1.0) | about 700 | 1.4 |
1.15 | about 630 | 1.6 |
1.5 | about 480 | 2.1 |
Double (2.0) | about 350 | 2.9 |
Watch for hidden paragraph spacing too. If your paragraph settings add space before or after each paragraph, on top of the line spacing, a document with lots of short paragraphs gains several extra lines per page. Check the paragraph settings, not just the line spacing, when a page count looks off.
Margins and paper size
Margins matter too, though less than spacing or font size. Most guides assume 1-inch margins. Narrowing them to 0.75 inch widens every line and adds lines to each page, so the page count drops noticeably.
Paper size makes only a small difference. A4 is 210 × 297 mm, slightly narrower and taller than US Letter at 8.5 × 11 inches (ISO 216). With 1-inch margins, an A4 page has about 4% more room for text, and in our test 1,000 double-spaced words took 2.8 pages on A4 against 2.9 on Letter. You can use the same page estimates for both.
How many pages is 1,000 words handwritten?
Roughly 3 to 4 sides of ruled paper, but handwriting varies more than any font, so treat this as a starting point. The estimate depends on two things: how many lines your paper has and how many words you fit on each line.
US college-ruled paper has lines 9/32 inch apart and wide-ruled paper 11/32 inch apart (Ruled paper). Over a writing area about 10 inches tall, that works out to roughly 35 lines on college-ruled and 29 on wide-ruled. If you write 8 to 10 words per line:
College-ruled: 280 to 350 words per side, so 1,000 words fills about 2.9 to 3.6 sides.
Wide-ruled: 230 to 290 words per side, so 1,000 words fills about 3.4 to 4.3 sides.
Skipping every other line: double those page counts, the handwritten version of double spacing.
For an exam or a handwritten essay, count the words on one full page of your own writing and divide. It takes a minute and beats any chart.
How many paragraphs is 1,000 words?
Usually 5 to 10. If your paragraphs average 100 to 200 words, 1,000 words gives you 5 to 10 of them, which suits an introduction, three or four body paragraphs and a conclusion. Online writing uses shorter paragraphs, so a 1,000-word blog post can easily have 15 or more.
How to find your exact page count
Set up the document exactly as you'll submit it: font, size, line spacing, margins, heading block.
Fill one complete page with ordinary body text, no headings or lists.
Count the words on that page. Paste the text into the Word Counter if your editor doesn't show it.
Divide your total word count by the words on one page. Then add pages for the title page, references or appendices, which usually don't count toward the word limit but do add pages.
If your draft is already written, it's simpler still: open it and look at the page count, or upload it to the Document Word Counter to see words and characters for a Word file or PDF.
Common mistakes when converting words to pages
Mixing up single and double spacing. It's a factor of two. Confirm which one the brief means before you plan.
Forgetting default paragraph spacing. Extra space after each paragraph can add a page to a long document.
Assuming the reference list counts the same way. Word limits and page limits don't always treat references, footnotes and title pages alike. Read the brief.
Padding with formatting. Bigger fonts and wider margins are easy for a marker to notice. Adding substance is safer than adding points.
Trusting one number for every font. 1,000 words in Courier New takes about 40% more space than in Times New Roman.
Planning a longer piece? See how long it takes to read 1,000 words for reading time, or how long a college essay should be if you're working to an application limit.
Frequently asked questions
Is 1,000 words 2 pages?
Yes, if it's single-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman with 1-inch margins. Double-spaced, 1,000 words is about 4 pages.
How many pages is 1,000 words double spaced?
About 4 pages at the standard 250 words per double-spaced page. Plain text in 12-point Times New Roman can fit on closer to 3 pages, so check your actual document if you have a page minimum.
How many pages is 1,000 words handwritten?
About 3 to 4 sides of college-ruled or wide-ruled paper, assuming 8 to 10 words per line. Count the words on one of your own pages for a precise figure.
How many pages is 500 words?
500 words is about 1 page single-spaced or 2 pages double-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman with 1-inch margins.
How many pages is 2,000 words?
2,000 words is about 4 pages single-spaced or 8 pages double-spaced with standard 12-point formatting.
How many words is a 4-page paper?
About 1,000 words if it's double-spaced, or about 2,000 words if it's single-spaced, using 12-point font and 1-inch margins.
How many paragraphs is 1,000 words?
Usually 5 to 10 paragraphs if they average 100 to 200 words each, and more for online writing with shorter paragraphs.
Does font size change how many pages 1,000 words is?
Yes. In our test, 1,000 single-spaced words took about 1.2 pages at 11 pt, 1.4 pages at 12 pt and 1.9 pages at 14 pt in Times New Roman.
How many words is 5 pages double spaced?
About 1,250 words, at roughly 250 words per double-spaced page in 12-point Times New Roman with 1-inch margins. Single spaced, 5 pages is about 2,500 words.
How many pages is 500 words double spaced?
About 2 pages double spaced, or 1 page single spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman with 1-inch margins.
How many pages is 1,500 words?
About 3 pages single spaced or 6 pages double spaced in 12-point Times New Roman with 1-inch margins.
Sources
Purdue Online Writing Lab. MLA General Format. Purdue University.
Purdue Online Writing Lab. APA General Format. Purdue University.
Liberation Fonts project. liberation-fonts. GitHub.
Microsoft. New Office theme. Microsoft Support.
ISO 216. Wikipedia.
Ruled paper. Wikipedia.
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