PDF Page Numbers
Add page numbers to a PDF. Choose the corner, the starting value and a format such as Page 3 of 12, and skip the title page. Runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
- Free, no sign-up
- REST + MCP
- Updated
- Reviewed by Olgun Ozoktas
Why Use Our PDF Page Numbers Tool?
Numbering pages is drawing a small piece of text in the same place on every page. The interesting part is not the drawing, it is the two questions of arithmetic that a tool either gets right or gets quietly wrong.
The first is what to do about a title page. A cover is not page 1 in the sense a reader means, so Skip the first page leaves it bare and starts numbering on the next sheet — and that sheet becomes number 1, not 2, because the count follows the numbering rather than the file.
The second is what {total} means. In a twelve-page document with a skipped cover, the honest total is 11: eleven pages carry a number, so the last one reads 11 of 11. A tool that printed 12 there would be describing a page that has no number.
Start at exists for the case where one document continues another. Set it to the number after the last one in the previous file and a split report reads as a single sequence.
Position matters more than it looks. Bottom centre collides with the least existing content across the widest range of documents, which is why it is the default — but a document with its own footer will need one of the corners instead.
How it compares
Most online page-numbering tools upload the file first. A contract or a set of minutes is not something to hand to a third party for a job this small, and this page never sends it anywhere.
Word processors number pages while you write, which is no help once the document is a PDF — especially one merged from several sources. If you also need a mark on the pages, PDF Watermark is the other common finishing step, and PDF Merger is usually what created the unnumbered file in the first place.
PDF Page Numbers Tips
- Skip the first page is what a title page wants. Numbering then starts on page 2, and that page gets the number you set as Start at.
- Page {n} of {total} counts only the pages that are numbered, so skipping a title page gives 1 of 11 on a twelve-page file rather than 2 of 12.
- Start at is for a document that continues another one — set it to carry on where the previous file stopped.
- Bottom centre is the least likely position to collide with existing content. Check a page with a footer before you commit.
- Numbers are drawn on top and change nothing underneath, so the original text stays selectable.