How to add page numbers to a PDF
- Add the PDF you want to number.
- Choose where the numbers go — bottom centre is the usual choice — and pick a style:
1,Page 1, or1 of 10. - Set the starting number and text size if the defaults do not suit, and tick Skip the first page if page one is a cover.
- Press Add page numbers, then Save the numbered PDF.
About this tool
Adding page numbers to a PDF makes a document easier to reference, print and hand around. This free tool stamps them on in your browser, so the file is never uploaded.
It is most useful for documents assembled from several sources. Once you have merged a report, a set of appendices and a signed cover letter into one PDF, the original numbering — if there was any — no longer matches. Numbering the finished file gives everyone a shared way to say "look at page 14".
The options exist because conventions differ. Legal and printed documents usually want a plain number at the bottom centre. Internal reports often prefer 1 of 10, which tells the reader how much is left. A document with a cover sheet normally starts numbering on the second page, which is what the skip option does.
Numbers are drawn into the page as real text, so they stay sharp at any zoom level and can be selected and searched like the rest of the document. Rotated pages are handled correctly, so a landscape scan in a portrait document still gets its number in the right place.
A preview of the page appears beside the settings and redraws as you change them, so you can see where the number lands before committing. It is built by running the actual numbering code over the first page and rendering the result, rather than by approximating it — what you see is what the download contains. When the skip option is ticked, the preview switches to page two, since showing an untouched cover page would tell you nothing.
The starting number is worth knowing about. If a document is the second volume of a set, or continues from a printed section, set it to begin where the previous part ended. Combined with the skip option, that covers the two situations where automatic numbering usually gets it wrong.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I start numbering from a page other than the first?
- Yes. Tick "Skip the first page" for a cover sheet, and set "Start at" to whatever number the numbering should begin from.
- Can I choose where the number appears?
- Yes — bottom or top, and left, centre or right.
- Are the numbers real text or an image?
- Real text. They stay sharp at any zoom and can be selected and searched.
- Is my document uploaded?
- No. The numbering happens entirely in your browser.
- What happens on landscape or rotated pages?
- The tool accounts for page rotation, so numbers land in the correct position rather than off the edge.