Add Page Numbers to PDF
Local only — nothing is uploaded unless you save or share it.
Add page numbers to a PDF — starting where you want, skipping the pages that should stay clean.
- Drop in the PDF that needs numbering
- Choose the corner and the style, and say where numbering should start
- Download the numbered PDF, or save it to your account
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About this tool
A PDF arrives with no pdf page numbers and suddenly nobody can refer to anything. You cannot say "see the table on page four" in an email, a reader cannot tell whether they have the whole thing, and a printed copy dropped on the floor is a puzzle. This will add page numbers to pdf pages and give the file back. It will number pdf pages one after another: pick the corner, pick the style — a bare number, "3 of 12", or "Page 3 of 12" — and download it. The part most tools get wrong is that a document has two different numbers. There is which sheet of paper it is, and there is what that sheet should say. They only match in the simplest documents. A report with a cover and a contents page starts numbering on the third sheet, and that sheet should say 1, not 3. An extract pulled from a longer bundle starts at 47 because that is what it was. So this asks both questions separately: which page to start numbering on, and what the first number should be. Everything before it stays clean. The pages are not flattened into images. The number is drawn onto the page like any other text, so the document stays selectable, searchable and roughly the size it was — unlike the tools that quietly turn every page into a picture to add one small number in a corner. It runs in your browser, so the PDF never reaches us.
Frequently asked questions
Can I start numbering on a later page?
Yes, and it is the reason this tool exists in the shape it does. Say which sheet numbering begins on and everything before it — a cover, a contents page — is left completely clean. That is separate from what the first number says, so a cover and a contents page can be skipped while the third sheet still reads 1.
Can the first number be something other than 1?
Yes. Set the starting number to 47 and the pages read 47, 48, 49. This is what you want for an extract from a larger bundle, where the numbers have to match the original document rather than restart.
What does "3 of 12" count?
The pages that carry a number, not the sheets in the file. If you skip a cover and number the remaining twelve, the last one says 12 of 12 rather than 13 of 13 — because a reader checking they have the whole thing counts the numbers in front of them, not the paper.
Will it cover up something already on the page?
It might, if the corner you choose already has content there. The numbers sit in the margin by default, which is empty on most documents, and you can move them to another corner if they land badly. Look at the preview before you download — that is what it is for.
Does it turn my pages into images?
No. Page numbering pdf files here does not rasterise anything — the number is drawn onto the existing page as text, so the document stays selectable and searchable and does not balloon in size. Some free tools flatten each page into a picture to add a number, which is a heavy price for a small mark.
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?
Not from this page — it is numbered in your browser and the file never leaves your computer. The API is the exception and says so, because a server has to receive the file to do the work.
Is there a free way to insert page numbers in PDF files?
This is one. There is no account, no watermark on the output and no limit on how often you use it — you can add page numbers to a pdf free, as often as you like, and the file never leaves your browser. The paid plan buys bigger files and storage, not this.
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