Add Page Numbers
Number PDF pages.
Select PDF File
Or drag and drop here
Add page numbers to a PDF, positioned where you want them
Stamp page numbers onto an existing PDF — six positions, several formats, and your own custom text. Runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Page numbers stop being a formatting detail the moment a document has to be referred to out loud. A contract negotiated over a call, a bundle a court expects to be paginated, a report a committee will discuss — all of them need everyone looking at the same number on the same page.
The awkward case is a PDF assembled from parts. Each source document numbered itself from one, so the merged file restarts three times and skips the cover. What you want is a single continuous sequence across the finished document, and that has to be added after merging, not before.
This tool stamps numbers onto the pages of a PDF you already have. You choose the corner, the format, the size and whether the count starts somewhere other than one — useful when a cover page should not be numbered but should still be counted.
Nothing is uploaded
The numbers are drawn onto the pages inside your browser tab. The document never reaches a server.
Six positions and custom formats
Any corner or centre, top or bottom, with formats from a bare number to "Page 3 of 40" or text you write yourself.
Real text, not an image
Numbers are drawn as selectable text using standard PDF fonts, so they stay crisp at any zoom and can be searched.
How to add page numbers to a PDF
Open the PDF you want to paginate.
Pick a position, format and size.
The numbers are drawn onto each page in your browser.
Download the numbered document.
The document stays in your browser
Numbering is usually the last step before a document goes out — a signed bundle, a filing, a board pack. Doing it locally means that final version is never handed to a third party on its way to being finished.
When people reach for this
Paginating a bundle assembled from several files
Once you merge an agreement, its annexes and a schedule, each part still carries its own numbering. A single continuous sequence over the finished bundle is the only way page 47 means one thing to everyone.
Preparing documents for a legal filing
Courts and tribunals frequently require continuous pagination across a bundle so that submissions can cite a page and everyone finds the same one.
Numbering a scanned document
A scan has no numbering at all unless the paper had it. Adding numbers makes a long scanned file citable and easier to check for missing sheets.
Handing out a report for discussion
"Page 12, second paragraph" only works if the pages are numbered. For anything read by a group, it is the difference between a smooth meeting and a confused one.
What actually happens to your file
The document is loaded in your browser with pdf-lib, and one of the standard PDF fonts is embedded — Helvetica or Times, in the regular, bold, italic or bold-italic variant you selected. These are the fourteen fonts every PDF reader is guaranteed to have, which is why the result renders identically everywhere without carrying font data around.
For each page, the format string is expanded: the token for the current number becomes the page's position in the sequence, and the token for the total becomes the page count. That is how "Page {n} of {t}" turns into "Page 3 of 40".
The position you chose is converted into coordinates from the page's own dimensions rather than assumed, so the number sits the same distance from the corner whether the page is A4, Letter or a wide scan. Then the text is drawn onto the page's content stream.
Because the number is drawn as text rather than stamped as an image, it stays sharp at any zoom, can be selected and searched, and adds almost nothing to the file size. The rest of the page is untouched — the existing content is not re-rendered.
Where it falls short, honestly
- Numbers are drawn on top of the existing page. If your document already has content in that corner — a footer, a logo, a previous numbering — the new number will overlap it. Check a page in that position before committing to it.
- It cannot remove numbering that is already there. Existing numbers are part of the page content and would have to be edited out, which is a different operation entirely.
- The choice of fonts is limited to the standard PDF set. You cannot match a distinctive typeface used elsewhere in the document.
- The same position and format apply to every page. There is no separate treatment for left- and right-hand pages, as a book would want.
- Numbering is added to the page surface, not as document-level page labels, so a reader's page-number box will not necessarily agree with what is printed.
- Encrypted files must be unlocked first, since the pages cannot be modified while the document is encrypted.
Compared with an online numbering tool
| This tool | Typical cloud tool | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your file goes | Nowhere. It stays in the browser tab. | Uploaded to a server you do not control. |
| Numbers as selectable text | Yes — drawn with embedded standard fonts. | Some rasterise, leaving fuzzy numbers. |
| Custom formats and start value | Yes. | Often a bare number only. |
| Effect on the rest of the page | Untouched — nothing is re-rendered. | Some re-encode the whole document. |
| Works offline | Yes, once the page has loaded. | No. |
| Watermarks | None. | Frequently added on free tiers. |