Tools
PDF page counter
Instantly count the pages in a PDF and check their sizes, without uploading it anywhere.
Drop a PDF here
or click to select a file, or paste
About this tool
Knowing how many pages a PDF has sounds trivial, but it comes up all the time: getting a print quote, working out how many sheets a booklet needs, checking that a scanned document is complete, or pricing a translation per page. This tool shows the total in large type as soon as the file loads, together with the most common page size in millimetres and points, and whether it matches a standard format such as A4, A5 or Letter.
Drop the PDF onto the upload area, click to choose it, or paste it from the clipboard. The page count and most common size appear at the top, along with how many pages share that size; if every page is the same, it says so. Below you get a page-by-page preview and the full print preflight report, in case you also want to check bleed, fonts or colour.
Counting happens in your browser: the PDF is never uploaded to a server, so it is fine for contracts and internal documents. It works with PDFs of any length, although very large files take a little longer because the whole document is analysed. With password-protected PDFs the analysis may be incomplete, and the tool counts pages only, not words or characters.
How do I count the pages in a PDF?
- Drop the PDF onto the “Drop a PDF here” box, click it to choose the file, or paste it with Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on a Mac). Only files with a .pdf extension are accepted.
- Wait for “Analysing PDF…” to finish. The whole document is read, so files with many pages or many images take a little longer.
- Read the total under “Page count”. Next to it, under “Most common page size”, you get the dimensions in millimetres and points and whether the page is portrait or landscape.
- If you want to check the content, step through the pages with the arrows on the preview.
How do I count the pages in several PDFs?
The tool analyses one PDF at a time. To count several, note down the total for the first one, press the X to the right of the file name (“Remove file”) and load the next. Each analysis replaces the previous one, so write the figure down before switching documents.
If you need the total for a batch, for example to get a print quote, add up the totals for each file. Bear in mind that it counts PDF pages, not sheets of paper: a 10-page document printed double-sided takes 5 sheets.
How is the most common page size worked out?
Every page in a PDF stores its dimensions in points; a point is 1/72 of an inch, about 0.35 mm. The tool reads the page box (MediaBox) of each page, rounds the dimensions to the nearest point and counts how many pages share each size. The one that occurs most often is shown as “Most common page size”, converted to millimetres.
If those dimensions match A3, A4, A5, A6, B5, Letter, Legal or Tabloid within 2 mm, the format name is shown in front. Orientation does not matter: a landscape A4 is still recognised as A4. If every page is the same size you will see “All pages are the same size”; if not, how many pages have the size shown.
What does the report below check?
Below the count is the full print preflight report. It groups the warnings under “Document”, “Geometry”, “Fonts”, “Colour”, “Images” and “Transparency”, and “Issues by page” shows which page each one is on.
Among other things, it flags whether the PDF is encrypted, whether the bleed box is missing or the bleed is under 3 mm, whether any page differs in size from the first, whether there are fonts that are not embedded, whether there is RGB colour or spot colour, and whether any image has too low a resolution for print. None of this changes the page count: if all you need is the total, you can ignore it.
Frequently asked questions
How can I see how many pages a PDF has without opening it in a reader?
Load the file here and the total appears at the top in large type as soon as the analysis finishes, with nothing to install.
How do I check whether a PDF is A4?
Below the page count you will see the most common page size in millimetres; if it matches A4 (210 × 297 mm) or another standard format, its name is shown in front.
What if the pages in my PDF are different sizes?
You see the size that occurs most often and how many pages use it. The report below lists which pages differ from page 1.
Can I count the pages of a password-protected PDF?
Sometimes. The page structure is not usually encrypted, so the count may still work, but the preview will not render. If it fails, open the PDF with its password and save an unprotected copy.