How Many Pages Is 1,000 Words? Single and Double Spaced

The short answer for the most common setup, 12 pt Times New Roman on US Letter or A4 paper with 1-inch margins: 1,000 words is 2 pages single-spaced, 3 pages with 1.5 spacing and 4 pages double-spaced. Change the font or the size and the number moves, sometimes by a full page. The tables below come from the words to pages converter, so you can check any other combination there.

1,000 words at a glance

Setup	Words per page	Pages for 1,000 words
Times New Roman 12 pt, single	500	2
Times New Roman 12 pt, 1.5 lines	335	3
Times New Roman 12 pt, double	250	4
Arial 12 pt, single	440	2.3
Arial 12 pt, double	220	4.5
Calibri 11 pt, single	580	1.7
Calibri 11 pt, double	290	3.4
Courier New 12 pt, double	175	5.7

The rule of thumb behind these numbers is about 500 words on a single-spaced page and about 250 on a double-spaced page in 12 pt Times New Roman. Double spacing makes each line twice as tall, so a page holds half as many lines and half as many words. That is why the double-spaced count is always twice the single-spaced count for the same font and size.

How font and size change the page count

Fonts with wider letters fit fewer words on each line. Arial, Georgia and Courier New are all wider than Times New Roman at the same point size; Calibri is only slightly wider. Size matters even more, because a smaller font fits more characters on each line and more lines on each page.

Pages for 1,000 words in every setting the converter offers:

Font	Size	Single	1.5 lines	Double
Times New Roman	10 pt	1.4	2.1	2.8
Times New Roman	11 pt	1.7	2.5	3.3
Times New Roman	12 pt	2	3	4
Times New Roman	14 pt	2.7	4.1	5.4
Arial	11 pt	1.9	2.9	3.8
Arial	12 pt	2.3	3.4	4.5
Calibri	11 pt	1.7	2.6	3.4
Calibri	12 pt	2.1	3.1	4.1
Georgia	11 pt	1.9	2.8	3.8
Georgia	12 pt	2.2	3.3	4.4
Courier New	12 pt	2.9	4.3	5.7

Two practical points follow from the table:

• A page requirement written for Times New Roman is easier to meet in Arial. The same 1,000 words grow from 4 to 4.5 double-spaced pages. If your instructions name a font, use that font when you check your length.
• Courier New is the outlier. Every character in a monospaced font takes the same width, so 1,000 words need almost 6 double-spaced pages.

1,000 words in MLA and APA format

Most people asking this question are writing a paper for school, where a style guide fixes the font, spacing and margins.

MLA. The Purdue OWL summary of MLA format asks for standard 8.5 × 11-inch paper, double-spaced text in a legible font such as Times New Roman at 12 pt, and 1-inch margins on all sides. That is the 250-words-per-page setting, so 1,000 words is about 4 pages. The first page also carries your name, the instructor’s name, the course and the date in the upper left corner, plus a title, so the text may spill a few lines onto page five.

APA 7. APA papers are double-spaced on 8.5 × 11-inch paper with 1-inch margins, but APA does not require a single font. The options it lists include 11 pt Calibri, 11 pt Arial, 12 pt Times New Roman and 11 pt Georgia. In the converter:

APA font	Words per page	Pages for 1,000 words
Calibri 11 pt	290	3.4
Arial 11 pt	265	3.8
Georgia 11 pt	265	3.8
Times New Roman 12 pt	250	4

APA papers have a separate title page and a reference list. Whether those count toward a page minimum is up to your instructor, so check the assignment. When an assignment gives both a word count and a page count, the word count is the more precise target. The guide how many words is a 5-page essay works through the same question in reverse.

Why your document may not match the estimate

The figures describe full pages of plain paragraphs. A real document is rarely that tidy:

• Headings, bullet lists and tables leave half-empty lines and extra space between blocks. A report with many short sections can run a page longer than the estimate.
• Short paragraphs and dialogue end lines early. A story with a lot of dialogue fills more pages than an essay of the same length.
• Space before and after paragraphs adds height that line spacing alone does not account for. In Word this sits next to line spacing under Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing > Line Spacing Options, in the Before and After boxes.
• 1.15 spacing, which Google Docs offers alongside Single, 1.5 and Double, is not one of the converter’s settings. Using the converter’s own rule (words per page divided by the spacing), 12 pt Times New Roman at 1.15 works out to roughly 435 words per page, or about 2.3 pages for 1,000 words.
• Other margins or paper sizes, such as 1.25-inch margins or a book page, are not modeled. The converter treats US Letter and A4 with 1-inch margins as the same page.
• Long words from technical, legal or medical writing take more room per word than everyday prose.

Use the estimate to plan before you write or to check whether a draft is roughly on target. For the final number, look at the page count in your word processor with the required settings in place.

How to check your own document

1. Count the words. Paste your text into the word counter. It counts hyphenated words, contractions and numbers as one word each; other programs can differ slightly on dashes, hyphens and links. The guide how to count words in Google Docs and Word explains where each program shows its count.
2. Convert to pages. Enter the count in the words to pages converter, choose Words → pages, then pick the Font, Size and Spacing you are using. About shows the pages and Words per page shows the figure used.
3. Or check in the document itself. In Google Docs, Tools > Word count shows pages, words and characters together. To change spacing there, use Line & paragraph spacing in the toolbar or the Format menu. In Word, select the text (Ctrl + A for everything) and go to Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing.

Related lengths

If 1,000 words is your reference point, these conversions use the same setup (12 pt Times New Roman, 1-inch margins):

Words	Single-spaced	Double-spaced
250	0.5 page	1 page
500	1 page	2 pages
750	1.5 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
5,000	10 pages	20 pages

Pages are not the only way to measure a text. If you are giving a talk rather than handing in a paper, the words to minutes converter shows how long 1,000 words takes to say aloud, and the guide how long is a 5-minute speech gives the word count to aim for.