1,000 words is 2 pages single spaced or 4 pages double spaced - in the setup almost every teacher and publisher means by default: Times New Roman, 12-point type, US Letter paper, 1-inch margins. At 1.5 spacing it lands in the middle, at 3 pages. If you need a different font, size or paper size, the free Words to Pages Calculator works it out exactly; this page gives you the tables for the counts people ask about most.
The full table
| Word count | Single spaced | Double spaced | Typically |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 words | 1 pages | 2 pages | Half a short essay; one blog section |
| 750 words | 1.5 pages | 3 pages | A short assignment or personal statement |
| 1,000 words | 2 pages | 4 pages | The standard college essay / blog post |
| 1,500 words | 3 pages | 6 pages | A medium research paper section |
| 2,000 words | 4 pages | 8 pages | A solid term-paper chapter |
| 2,500 words | 5 pages | 10 pages | What a teacher means by a 10-page paper |
| 3,000 words | 6 pages | 12 pages | A long-form article |
| 5,000 words | 10 pages | 20 pages | A dissertation chapter |
| 10,000 words | 20 pages | 40 pages | A novella's first act |
All figures use the standard setup above. Two rules of thumb cover most of school and work life: a single-spaced page holds about 500 words; a double-spaced page holds about 250. Divide your word count by 500 or 250 and you have your answer within a fraction of a page.
How many words is half a page?
About 250 words single spaced, or roughly 125 words double spaced. This is the most-asked version of the question - it is what a teacher means by a half-page response, and it works out to two solid paragraphs of ordinary writing. If your half page is handwritten, count about 125 words as well: handwriting runs roughly twice the size of 12-point type, so a handwritten page behaves like a double-spaced typed one.
Why fonts change the answer
The page holds a fixed amount of space, not a fixed number of words - so a wide font fills it faster. At 12 pt and double spacing, 1,000 words runs to about 4 pages in Times New Roman or Arial, about 3.7 in Calibri (its letters are compact), about 4.3 in Georgia, about 5 in Verdana, and around 7 in Courier New, whose monospaced letters each take the same wide slot. Font size moves things just as much: drop to 10 pt and the same 1,000 words fit in about 1.7 single-spaced pages; go to 14 pt and you need 2.5. This is also why "just change the font" is the oldest trick for making an essay look longer - teachers know it, and most style guides now fix the font for exactly this reason.
A4 paper (UK, Europe, Australia)
A4 is a little narrower and a little taller than US Letter. With the same 2.54 cm (1-inch) margins it holds about 4% more text, so short documents come out the same - 1,000 words is still 2 pages single spaced or 4 double - but a 10,000-word document can finish a page earlier on A4. The calculator has an A4 option if you want the exact figure for your settings.
Books and NaNoWriMo manuscripts
Printed books break the school rules: a typical 6 x 9 paperback page holds around 300 words, so a 50,000-word novel - the NaNoWriMo target - becomes roughly 170-200 printed pages, while looking like 100 single-spaced or 200 double-spaced manuscript pages. If you are pacing a November draft, 50,000 words over 30 days is 1,667 words a day. Set the calculator to pages-to-words and turn any page target into the daily number you actually need to hit.
Try it now: the Words to Pages Calculator converts both ways and counts the words in pasted text for you. Its sibling, the Word Counter, adds characters, sentences and reading time.
Frequently asked questions
How many pages is 1,000 words double spaced?
Four pages, in Times New Roman 12 pt with 1-inch margins on US Letter paper. Single spaced it is 2 pages; at 1.5 spacing, 3 pages.
How many pages is 2,500 words?
2,500 words is 5 pages single spaced or 10 pages double spaced at standard settings - which is why a teacher asking for a 10-page paper usually expects about 2,500 words.
How many words is a 5-page essay?
About 1,250 words if double spaced (the usual school format), or about 2,500 if single spaced. A 10-page essay is roughly 2,500 or 5,000 words on the same basis.
How many pages is 500 words handwritten?
About 2 pages. Handwriting is roughly twice the size of 12-point type, so a handwritten page holds what a double-spaced typed page holds - around 250 words.