Add Page Numbers to PDF

Stamp page numbers onto a PDF, choosing position, style and where numbering starts.

This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your data is never uploaded, never stored, and never leaves your device.

This paginates a PDF, stamping page numbers onto every page and letting you pick the corner they sit in, how they read — 1, Page 1, or 1 of 20 — and which number to start from.

How to use it

1Open the PDF you want numbered.
2Choose a position, a style, and the number to start at — useful when the document is one chapter of something longer.
3Tick the cover-page option if the first page should stay clean.
4Press Add Page Numbers and download the result.

Example

Input: A 20-page PDF, bottom centre, style '1 of 20', first page skipped
Output: Pages 2 to 20 numbered '1 of 19' through '19 of 19', with the cover left bare

Skipping the cover shifts the count, so the numbering a reader sees stays consistent.

What happens to your data

This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your input is never uploaded to a server, never stored, and never logged. Numbering happens by editing the file in memory in this tab.

Last updated August 2026

A printed document that has come apart on a desk is only recoverable if the pages are numbered. So is a PDF that will be quoted in a meeting, cited in a filing, or read alongside a list of corrections. Word processors do this at the source; a PDF you have been sent does not give you that option.

This stamps numbers onto an existing PDF. Pick the corner, pick how they read — a bare number, 'Page 4', or '4 of 20' — and pick where the count starts, which matters when the document is one section of something bigger.

Decide first whether the numbers are for reading or for citing. If people only need to know where they are, any style and any corner will do. If the numbers will be quoted back at you — the clause on page 14, the exhibit at 203 — settle the pagination before anything else, and stop editing the file afterwards.

The reason is that a PDF has no idea what page it is on. A number stamped onto a sheet is ink, not a property of the document, so inserting or removing one page later leaves every number after it wrong.

How it works

Toolvore embeds a standard Helvetica font, measures the width of each number so it can be centred or right-aligned exactly, and draws it into the page's own coordinate space. Pages that carry their own rotation — a landscape scan inside a portrait document — are compensated for, so the number reads the right way up rather than sideways in the margin. All of it happens in this tab. The number is drawn in a dark grey rather than black, and that colour is not adjustable. It joins the page's own content rather than being attached as an annotation, so it prints like anything else on the sheet and no viewer can switch it off — including you, once the file is saved, so keep your original. There is no preview, so you find out where the number landed by opening numbered.pdf. Every numbered page takes the same corner: nothing alternates for double-sided printing.

Common use cases

Numbering a scanned contract so clauses can be referred to by page in a call
Paginating a bundle assembled from several separate PDFs
Adding 'Page 3 of 12' to a report so a reader knows when they have the whole thing
Starting numbering at 47 because this PDF is the second half of a longer document
Leaving a cover page unnumbered while the body pages count from one
Numbering a document of mixed portrait and landscape scans so every number still reads upright

Frequently asked questions

Can I start numbering from a number other than 1?＋

Yes. Set 'Start numbering at' to any value — useful when the PDF is a continuation of another document and the numbers have to line up.

Can I leave the cover page without a number?＋

Yes. Tick the cover option and the first page is skipped, with the count starting on page two so the numbering a reader sees stays consistent.

Will the numbers cover up existing content?＋

They are drawn in the margin, 28 points from the edge. On a document with unusually deep content the number can overlap; reduce the text size if that happens.

Are the numbers real text or a picture?＋

Real text, in an embedded font. They can be selected, copied and searched like any other text in the PDF.

Does the file get uploaded?＋

No. The PDF is read and rewritten in your browser, so it never leaves your device.

Does the front cover count as page 1?＋

Print convention counts it — the cover is page one even though no number appears on it — but the numbering that matters is whatever the people quoting it agree on. Here, leaving the first page unnumbered also takes it out of the total: a twenty-page PDF reads 'Page 1 of 19' on the second sheet. The total in the 'of' styles is the last number the run reaches rather than the page count, so starting a ten-page file at 47 gives '47 of 56'.

Should page numbers go in the centre or the corner?＋

Bottom centre is the safe answer for anything printed double-sided or bound, because the outer corner swaps sides on facing pages and every page here takes the same corner — there is no mirrored or odd-and-even option. Bottom right is the usual choice for a one-sided report read on screen. The three top positions earn their keep when the foot of the page is already occupied — a footer, a firm name, a scanner's strip — since nothing is moved aside to make room.

What if the pages already have numbers printed on them?＋

That is normal in scans of documents paginated before scanning, and in bundles assembled from already-numbered files. Nothing here removes them: the old numbers are part of the page, whether as text or as the picture of a page. Two sets can coexist if they sit visibly apart and everyone is told which governs, so put the new number in a corner the old one does not use. If the original numbering has to be the one people cite, leave the file alone.

Can I use roman numerals for the front matter?＋

No. The styles are a bare number, 'Page 1', '1 of 10', 'Page 1 of 10' and a number set between dashes — the last being the form printed books tend to use. There is no roman option, no letter-and-number form like A-1, and no way to add your own wording. The convention of roman for the preliminaries and arabic restarting at one for the body needs two passes: split the document, number each part with its own starting value and join them again.

Can I number a password-protected PDF?＋

Not currently. Encryption is checked rather than ignored, so a protected document is turned away with 'Could not read that PDF. It may be encrypted or corrupted.' A PDF can carry two passwords, one that stops it opening and one that restricts changes, and either is enough to stop this. If you hold the password, open the file in whatever reads it, save an unprotected copy, and number that. If you do not, nothing on a web page should get you past it.