How many words is a page?
Four things decide it: the font, the size, the spacing and the trim. Set them here and get a number you can plan a book around, both as a manuscript and as the printed book on a shelf.
A standard manuscript page holds 250 words: double-spaced, 12pt type, one-inch margins on US Letter. Single-spaced, the same page holds about 500. A printed 6 x 9 in paperback page holds about 275. A mass market page holds about 220 to 285. Change the font, the spacing or the trim size and every figure moves.
Words per page calculator
What agents and editors ask for
Manuscript default
Your page
250words a page
80,000 words is 320 pages
Double · 12pt · Times New Roman · US Letter (8.5 x 11in)
Figures round to the nearest ten. Real line breaks depend on your actual words, so no calculator is exact, but this is close enough to plan a book.
The answers people look for
- How many words is one page?
250 words
That is a double-spaced page in 12pt type with one-inch margins, the standard manuscript page. Use it whenever a submission guideline counts pages. Single-spaced, the same page holds about 500.
- How many words is a 200 page book?
About 55,000 words
That is for a finished 6 x 9in trade paperback at about 275 words a page. The honest range is 50,000 to 60,000. The same 200 pages as a double-spaced manuscript hold exactly 50,000 words. The two counts measure different pages.
- How many pages is 50,000 words?
200 manuscript pages
As a printed 6 x 9in paperback it lands near 180 pages. At 5.5 x 8.5in it is near 210. As a mass market paperback it lands somewhere between 175 and 230.
- How many pages is 80,000 words?
320 manuscript pages
That is the middle of the range most adult fiction sits in. Printed at 6 x 9in it becomes a book of about 290 pages.
- How many pages is 1,000 words?
Four double-spaced pages
Or two single-spaced. A chapter of 3,000 words fills twelve manuscript pages, and about eleven printed 6 x 9in pages.
Why the same book has two page counts
People ask how many words on a page as if there were one answer. There are two, because there are two kinds of page. When an agent asks for the first fifty pages, they mean manuscript pages: double-spaced, 12pt, on one side of a sheet of Letter or A4. That format exists to be marked up, so it is deliberately loose.
The 250-word figure comes from the typewriter era. Manuscripts were typed in Courier. Twenty-five double-spaced lines of about ten words filled a page. Writers kept the convention long after they stopped using typewriters, which is why a real page of Times New Roman usually holds a little more than 250. Use 250 anyway when you estimate for an agent or a contest. It is the number everyone shares.
A printed book is a different object. The type is set single-spaced on a smaller trim with tighter margins. A 6 x 9 in page carries about 275 words. So an 80,000-word novel is 320 manuscript pages and about 290 printed ones, at the same time.
This trips writers up in both directions. Someone plans a 300-page book and writes 75,000 words, which fills 300 manuscript pages but only about 270 printed ones. Someone else finishes 300 manuscript pages and is surprised by a thinner proof. Neither is wrong. They are measuring different pages. The honest answer to how many words is a page is always a question back: which page?
What moves the number most
**Font.** Courier is monospaced, so every letter takes the width of the widest one. A Courier page holds noticeably less than a Times New Roman page at the same size, often a fifth less or more.
**Size and spacing.** Smaller type fits more characters on each line and more lines on each page at once, so a one-point change matters more than it looks. Double spacing halves the page.
**Trim.** Moving a printed book from 6 x 9 in to 5.5 x 8.5 in adds roughly 15 to 20 percent to the page count.
**Dialogue.** Short lines of dialogue leave white space at the end of every line. A chapter of quick back-and-forth fills more pages than the same word count of description.
Smaller pages do not always mean denser type. Mass market paperbacks are the smallest common format, yet real editions run about 220 to 285 words a page, often fewer than the hardcover of the same book. Gone Girl runs 419 pages in hardcover and 560 as a mass market paperback, with the same words.
Plan in words, not pages
Word count is the only figure that does not move when you change a setting. Genre expectations, submission guidelines and contest rules are stated in words. Pages are a rendering of your word count, not a property of your book.
Use the manuscript number when you submit
If a guideline asks for pages and does not say which kind, it means manuscript pages. Send 12pt, double-spaced, with one-inch margins. You will never be the writer who sent fifty pages that were really eighty.
Lock the page count before the cover
A print cover needs a spine. The spine depends on the page count. Amazon KDP sets it at page count x 0.002252 in for white paper, so a 300-page book has a spine of about 0.68 in. Add or cut pages after the cover is designed and the spine no longer fits. Choose the trim size first, then format, then commission the cover. When the manuscript is final, FeelyWrite exports it as DOCX, PDF or EPUB on every plan, free, ready for whoever sets your pages.
Measure one chapter of your own
The calculator gives the typical figure. Your book is not typical. A dialogue-heavy thriller fills pages faster than a descriptive fantasy. Format one finished chapter the way it will be printed, count its pages, then divide. That number beats every rule of thumb, including ours.
Common questions
- How many words is a page?
- About 250 for a standard double-spaced manuscript page in 12pt type. The same page single-spaced holds about 500. A printed 6 x 9 in paperback page holds about 275. The calculator above gives the figure for your exact settings.
- How many words is a 300 page book?
- About 82,000 words as a 6 x 9 in paperback at 275 words a page. If you mean 300 double-spaced manuscript pages, it is 75,000. Same number of pages, two different books.
- How many words per page in Times New Roman?
- Double-spaced at 12pt, usually a little more than 250, because Times New Roman is narrower than the Courier the convention was built on. William Shunn, whose [manuscript format guide](https://www.shunn.net/format/) many editors point writers to, notes that a proportional font gives a higher count. For estimates, still use 250.
- Does a mass market paperback fit more words on a page?
- Not reliably. The page is smaller, usually about 4.25 x 6.87 in. Real editions run about 220 to 285 words a page. That is often fewer than the hardcover of the same book, which is why the mass market edition is usually the thickest.
- Is this accurate to the exact word?
- No, and no calculator can be. Real line breaks depend on the actual words, so figures here round to the nearest ten. That is the precision the question genuinely has. It is enough to plan a book.
- How many pages is a 3,000 word chapter?
- Twelve double-spaced manuscript pages, or about eleven printed 6 x 9 in pages. Heavy dialogue pushes both numbers up.
Now write the words
A target is easier to hit with a partner that remembers the whole book. Draft scenes, reshape a paragraph and keep your cast consistent with Story DNA while the word count climbs. Want a push first? Run a timed sprint with a word goal in the free sprint app. It needs no signup.
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