Add page numbers to PDF

1. Add your PDF. Drag and drop it onto the box above, or click to browse and select one file.
2. Choose a position. Pick one of six spots — top or bottom, left, center, or right — using the position grid.
3. Pick a format. Choose a plain number like 1, a labeled number like Page 1, or a full count like Page 1 of N.
4. Set the start number and range. Decide which number the first numbered page should show, and which pages should be numbered — by default every page is included.
5. Check the live preview. The first page updates instantly so you can see exactly where the number will print before committing.
6. Download. Click Add page numbers, then save numbered.pdf to your device. No account, no watermark, no email required.

Most “add page numbers to PDF” websites upload your file to a server to stamp the numbers on and hand it back. That is an unnecessary risk when the document is a contract, a manuscript, an invoice bundle, or anything else you would rather not send to a third party. It is also slower — you wait for an upload, a queue, a server-side render, and a download, when the whole operation is simple enough for your own device to do instantly. This tool works differently: it draws the numbers directly onto your pages locally, on your device, using the open-source pdf.js and pdf-lib libraries, so the file never leaves your browser tab and the result appears the moment you click the button.

• Private by design — nothing is uploaded, stored, or logged, so confidential drafts and signed contracts stay on your device the whole time.
• No limits — number PDFs of any length your device can handle, with no daily cap, no page-count ceiling, and no forced trial period.
• No watermark — the output is a clean PDF with only the numbers you asked for, not a promotional stamp from the tool itself.
• Live preview — see the exact position and format before you download, so there are no surprises when you open the final file.
• Works offline — once the page has loaded, you can disconnect from the internet entirely and the tool keeps working.

The tool mirrors the options professional PDF editors use, so the result looks the way you expect:

• Position — six choices: top-left, top-center, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-center, and bottom-right. Bottom-center is the most common choice for reports and manuscripts; bottom-right or top-right suit business documents.
• Format — a bare number (1), a labeled number (Page 1), or a full count (Page 1 of N) that also tells the reader how many numbered pages there are.
• Start number — begin at 1, or start higher if this PDF continues numbering from another document (for example, an appendix that should start at 45).
• Page range — number every page by default, or restrict numbering to a specific range, such as skipping a cover page by starting the range at page 2.
• Font size — 10pt, 12pt, or 14pt, to match the density of your document.
• Font — Helvetica, Times, or Courier, the three built-in PDF standard fonts, so no fonts need to be downloaded or embedded beyond what every PDF viewer already supports.

• Reports & proposals — page numbers help readers track their place through a long document and let a colleague reference “see page 12” in feedback instead of describing a section by hand.
• Manuscripts & theses — most academic departments and publishers require sequential page numbers as a baseline formatting requirement before a document will even be reviewed.
• Contracts & legal documents — numbered pages make it straightforward to confirm nothing is missing after printing or scanning, and to cite a specific clause by page during negotiation or review.
• Printed handouts — a stack of loose printed pages is easy to shuffle out of order; numbers make it fast to put them back the way they were meant to be read.
• Multi-file bundles — after merging several PDFs into one file, the combined document often has no consistent numbering at all; adding numbers after the merge makes the result feel like one coherent document instead of several files stapled together.
• Applications & submissions — grant applications, RFP responses, and portfolio submissions frequently ask for numbered pages so reviewers can refer back to specific sections during scoring.

• If your PDF has a cover page you don't want numbered, set the range to start at page 2 and keep the start number at 1, so numbering still begins at “1” on the first content page instead of “2.”
• Use the live preview to check that the number doesn't collide with existing footer text, a page border, or a logo that's already printed on the page — if it does, try a different corner or increase the margin by choosing a smaller font size.
• Bottom-center is the safest default for documents that will be printed and bound, since it stays clear of hole punches or binding margins on either side of the page.
• If a file fails to load, it may be password-protected — remove the password in your PDF reader first, save an unprotected copy, and add that copy instead.
• For a document that continues from a previous file — for example, part two of a two-part report — set the start number to the next number in the existing sequence rather than restarting at 1.
• If the PDF mixes portrait and landscape pages, preview a landscape page separately before downloading; the position grid places the number relative to that page's own width and height, so it stays correctly inset even when the orientation changes partway through the document.

The tool reads the exact width and height of every page with pdf-lib, measures the text width of the number label at your chosen font and size, and calculates the x and y coordinates so the label lands at a consistent margin from the edge you picked — left, center, or right, and top or bottom. That is the same basic approach commercial PDF-numbering tools use, and it keeps the numbers aligned even across pages of different sizes within the same document.

Concretely, the horizontal position comes from the label's measured width: for a left-aligned number the text starts a fixed margin in from the left edge, for a right-aligned number the tool subtracts the label's width from the page width so the text ends flush with the same margin on the right, and for a centered number the tool splits the leftover space evenly on both sides. The vertical position uses the same fixed margin from the top or bottom edge, nudged slightly to account for how text baselines sit relative to the font's bounding box, so the printed number doesn't look too close to — or too far from — the edge of the page. Because every page is measured individually, a document that mixes portrait and landscape pages, or letter and A4 sizes, still gets numbers sitting at a visually consistent distance from the edge on every page.

The font itself is one of the three PDF “standard 14” fonts — Helvetica, Times, or Courier — which every PDF viewer, printer driver, and PDF-to-image converter already knows how to render without needing an embedded font file. That keeps the output file small and avoids the font-substitution glitches that can happen when a PDF references a font the viewer doesn't have installed.

Page numbers are the simplest way to help a reader keep their place, but they are not the only option, and it's worth knowing when a different tool is a better fit:

• Watermarks add a repeating word or logo across the page — useful for marking a document as “Draft” or “Confidential,” but not a substitute for sequential numbering.
• Headers and footers in a word processor can include a page number alongside a document title or date, but that only works before the file is exported to PDF — this tool is for PDFs you already have, including scanned files with no original source document.
• Bookmarks and a table of contents help readers jump to a section in a PDF viewer, and work well alongside page numbers rather than instead of them, since a printed copy of the document still needs numbers a reader can point to.
• Bates numbering, used in legal discovery, is a specialized form of page numbering with a fixed-width prefix and no reset between documents — this tool's custom start number can approximate simple cases, but dedicated legal Bates-numbering software is the better choice for formal discovery production.

Page numbers are especially useful right after you've combined several files into one PDF, since the original files likely had no numbers, inconsistent numbers, or numbers that no longer make sense once the pages are in a new order. A common workflow is to merge the source files first, confirm the final page order is correct, and only then add page numbers — that way the numbers describe the finished document instead of the individual pieces that went into it. The same logic applies in reverse: if you split a large numbered PDF into smaller files, each new file's numbering will usually need to restart, which is exactly what the start-number field is for.

If you regularly work with the same kind of multi-file bundle — say, a weekly expense report built from a handful of receipt scans — it can help to settle on one convention and reuse it every time: always merge first, always number bottom-right at 10pt, always start at 1. Reviewers who see the same document get used to that convention and can skim the page numbers instead of re-reading the whole layout each time. Because this tool remembers none of your files after you close the tab, it doesn't save a “preset” for you automatically, but the position, format, and font controls are simple enough to reproduce the same choices in a few clicks each time.

Because the page numbers are added as real, selectable PDF text rather than a flattened image, the output file stays close to the size of the original — typically only a few kilobytes larger across the whole document, since a short text string and a standard font reference add very little data compared to a rasterized number on every page. That also means the numbers remain searchable and selectable in any PDF viewer, and they print at full resolution regardless of your screen's zoom level when you added them, unlike a screenshot-based approach that can look blurry once printed.