How Many Pages Is 1,000 Words?

Got an assignment that asks for 1,000 words and wondering how much paper that actually fills? Here's the short answer: 1,000 words is about two pages single-spaced and four pages double-spaced. That assumes the setup most schools ask for: 12-point Times New Roman, 1-inch margins and no extra space between paragraphs.

Real documents rarely land exactly on those numbers, though. Headings, short paragraphs or a bigger font can push you onto a fifth page. Below you'll find a chart for common word counts, what changes the page count and a quick way to check your own document.

How many pages is 1,000 words?

With standard formatting, a single-spaced page holds roughly 500 words and a double-spaced page holds roughly 250. So for 1,000 words you get:

• Single-spaced: about 2 pages
• 1.5 line spacing: about 2.7 pages
• Double-spaced: about 4 pages

These numbers work because the average English word is a little under five letters long. Dense pages with long paragraphs hit the 500 and 250 marks most closely. Pages broken up by headings, lists or dialogue hold fewer words. Grammarly's writing guide gives the same two-page and four-page estimate.

Word count to pages chart

Use this as a ballpark. It assumes 12-point Times New Roman and 1-inch margins.

What changes the page count?

Four settings decide how many pages your words take up. Line spacing matters most. Margins matter least.

Line spacing

Double spacing doubles the page count. That's the biggest single factor, and it's why your teacher's formatting rules matter more than any chart.

Font size

Dropping from 12-point to 11-point fits noticeably more words on each line. Going up to 14-point does the opposite and can turn four pages into five.

Font choice

Fonts take up different amounts of room at the same point size. Arial and Calibri are wider than Times New Roman, so the same 1,000 words can spill onto an extra half page. Verdana is wider still. Garamond runs narrow, which is why people use it to squeeze text onto fewer pages.

Margins and layout

One-inch margins are the default in Microsoft Word and Google Docs. Widen them and every line gets shorter. Headings, bullet lists and short paragraphs also leave white space, so a 1,000-word blog post with ten paragraphs and four headings can easily fill two and a half single-spaced pages.

How many pages is a 1,000-word paper in APA or MLA format?

Both styles ask for double spacing and 1-inch margins, so the body of a 1,000-word paper takes about four pages either way. The extras are what make the final document longer.

• APA (7th edition): a student paper normally starts with a separate title page and ends with a references page. Four pages of body text plus those two pages gives you about six pages in total. APA also accepts fonts like 11-point Calibri or Arial, which fit slightly fewer words per line than Times New Roman.
• MLA (9th edition): there's no title page by default. Your name, instructor, course and date go in the top-left corner of page one, which takes a few lines. Add a Works Cited page and you're at roughly five pages.

Purdue OWL keeps up-to-date guides for APA formatting and MLA formatting if you need the exact rules.

How many handwritten pages is 1,000 words?

Handwriting varies a lot more than typing. Small, neat writing on college-ruled paper might fit 250 words per side, while larger writing on wide-ruled paper might fit closer to 150. For most people, 1,000 words fills somewhere between four and seven handwritten pages. If you're writing an exam answer by hand, count the words on one of your own pages and multiply.

How long does it take to write 1,000 words?

Many people type around 40 words per minute, so typing 1,000 words takes about 25 minutes. Writing is slower than typing because you're thinking at the same time. For a school essay, plan on one to two hours for a first draft, then extra time to research and edit.

How long does it take to read 1,000 words?

About four minutes. A 2019 review of 190 reading studies found that adults read non-fiction silently at around 238 words per minute. Reading aloud is slower, at roughly 183 words per minute, so a 1,000-word speech runs about five and a half minutes. Our guide on how long it takes to read 1,000 words has a full reading-time chart.

How do you check the page count of your own document?

1. Paste your text into our free word counter to get the exact word count.
2. Divide by 500 for single-spaced pages or by 250 for double-spaced pages.
3. For the exact number, set your font, size, spacing and margins in Word or Google Docs and look at the page count at the bottom of the window.

Writing to a page limit instead of a word limit? Work backwards. Four double-spaced pages is roughly 1,000 words, so aim for that and adjust once your formatting is final.

Do teachers care about pages or words?

Most instructors now set word counts, because they're harder to game. Bumping the font size or stretching the margins changes the page count. It doesn't change the number of words. If an assignment gives both, the word count usually wins. When in doubt, ask. A quick email beats losing marks over formatting.

Need to hit a precise target? Our sentence counter shows words, sentences, paragraphs and reading time as you type, so you'll know exactly where you stand.