Add page numbers to PDF
Stamp page numbers in the position and style you choose.
or drop files anywhere on this page
Your files stay in this browser. Nothing is uploaded.
About Page Numbers
To add page numbers to a PDF here, choose a numbering style, a position and, if you like, a word to put in front, and the tool stamps a running number such as "Page 1" onto every page or a chosen range. The number is drawn as real text in black, so it stays selectable and searchable.
Reach for it before printing or circulating a long document so readers can cite or navigate it by page. It only adds the stamped text; it does not renumber a table of contents or any page labels already built into the file.
How it works
- Add one or more PDFs.
- The Customize box already holds the word "Page". Keep it, change it or clear it, then choose a numbering Style: Page 1, 1, Page 1 of N, 1 of N or 1/N. Only Page 1 and Page 1 of N use the label; the other three show the number alone.
- Choose Location on page. It starts on Header center, so pick Footer center or Footer right if you want the numbers at the bottom.
- Open More options to change the font (Times New Roman, Helvetica or Courier), size (6 to 28), document margins, page range or starting number.
- Click Add page numbers and download the result.
How the numbers are counted
Numbers follow the pages you select, not the pages of the file. Leave "Apply only to pages" empty and every page is numbered in order from "Start numbering from", which is 1 unless you change it. Give it a range and only those pages are numbered: the first selected page gets the starting number and each later one adds one. Pages outside the range are left as they are. The range takes pages and spans separated by commas, plus odd and even, for example 3-9, 15-, odd, even, or 2,5,8.
In the "of N" styles and in 1/N, N is the number of pages that receive a label, not the page count of the file, and it does not move when you raise the starting number. Numbering 9 pages from 3 with Page 1 of N gives "Page 3 of 9" through "Page 11 of 9". The preview under Customize counts every page of your longest file, so with a range it can show a larger N than the finished file. If you start from a number other than 1, use the Page 1 or 1 style.
Where the number lands, and what it can cover
Each label sits about 0.5 in from the edge you choose, measured against that page's own size, so a file that mixes A4 and Letter pages gets the same spacing on each. Left and right locations are also 0.5 in from the side. The tool does not look at what is underneath, so content that runs closer to the edge than that can be overlapped.
Increase margins shrinks the content of each numbered page to 92 percent and shifts it so a band is free at the edge where the number goes, the top for a header location and the bottom for a footer location. The page keeps its size, and pages outside your range are not shrunk.
The number is always black and on one line, at 10 points unless you change it. The three fonts are standard PDF fonts that the reader supplies, and they cover Western European letters; a character outside that set in the Customize label, such as Chinese or Cyrillic, is drawn as a question mark.
What tends to go wrong
- Numbers along the side of the page. Positions are worked out on the page as stored, and any rotation setting is ignored. On a page rotated 90 degrees, such as a landscape scan or a page turned with Rotate, a header location lands on a side edge; in a test on a rotated A4 page it sat at the right edge. Check the first pages of the result before sending.
- A range that outruns one of the files. If you add files of different lengths and the range reaches past the end of a shorter one, the run stops with a message such as "Page 12 is beyond the last page (10)." instead of skipping that file.
- A range left over from last time. The tool remembers the options you used last in this browser, page range included, so check More options if that message appears on a single file.
- A second set of numbers. The tool only adds text, so a document that already prints its own page numbers ends up with two.
- Numbers that stop matching. They are stamped text, so they do not follow pages that move afterwards. Finish reordering, adding and deleting pages with Organize or Delete Pages first, then number.
- A file that needs an open password must have it typed on its file chip before the button becomes available.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Use "Apply only to pages" to pick which pages get a number, and "Start numbering from" to set the first number used. Pages outside the selection are left blank.
Numbers are placed about 0.5 in from the edge of the page, so content that runs closer to the edge than that can be overlapped. If your content reaches the edge, choose "Increase margins" to shrink the page content slightly and free a band for the number.
Each number is placed a fixed 0.5 in from that page's own edge, not from one shared point across the document. A landscape page, a differently sized cover, or a mix of A4 and Letter pages will each position the label consistently relative to its own edges, so it can look shifted when you compare pages side by side.
No. Each file added is numbered on its own, starting from whatever you set in "Start numbering from", and the results come back in a ZIP. Process files separately, adjusting the starting number each time, if you need a sequence that carries on from one file into the next.
Yes. Set "Apply only to pages" to a range such as "2-" to leave page one blank. The first page in the range gets the starting number, so page two reads 1 by default; set "Start numbering from" to 2 if page two should read 2.
Yes. It is drawn with a standard PDF font, so it is selectable and searchable, not an image.
No. This tool numbers pages within a single file; it has no continuous identifier that carries a unique number across a whole set of documents the way Bates numbering does in legal discovery.
Location on page starts on Header center. Change it to Footer center, Footer left or Footer right for the usual bottom-of-page numbering.
Not accurately. Numbers count only the pages you select, so choosing odd would label pages 1, 3 and 5 as 1, 2 and 3. This tool does not produce numbers that match the physical page on facing pages.
You would get a second set. The tool only adds text and cannot edit or remove numbers that are already part of the pages. Use "Apply only to pages" to number just the pages that have none.
Related tools
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