Is adding page numbers to PDF free?

Yes, completely free. No account, no watermarks, no usage limits.

Are my files kept private?

Yes. Files are transferred over HTTPS and deleted from our servers immediately after download. We never read or store your documents.

Is adding page numbers to PDF free?

Yes, completely free. No account, no watermarks, no usage limits.

Are my files kept private?

Yes. Files are transferred over HTTPS and deleted from our servers immediately after download. We never read or store your documents.

Add Page Numbers to PDF

Q: Can I skip numbering the first page?

Yes. The Skip first page option leaves your cover or title page unnumbered while numbering all remaining pages.

Q: What number formats are available?

You can use plain numbers (1, 2, 3), Page 1 style, Page 1 of 12 style, or dash-surrounded numbers like - 1 -.

Choose your position, format, font and colour — then upload your PDF and download it with page numbers added instantly. No signup, no watermarks.

Position

Number Format

Font

Font Size

Colour

Start Numbering At

Skip First Page

Leave cover unnumbered

Numbers will appear at Bottom Center
Format: 1, 2, 3…

No files stored

Done in seconds

No watermarks

What This Page Numbering Tool Does

This tool adds page numbers directly into your PDF as permanent text, stamped onto each page at the position and style you choose. Unlike a viewer overlay, the numbers are embedded in the file itself — so they appear correctly when the PDF is printed, shared, or opened in any PDF reader on any device. You configure everything before uploading: position, format, font family, font size, colour, starting number, and whether to skip the first page.

The live preview strip updates instantly as you change settings, so you can see exactly how the numbers will look before committing. Once you click the upload button, conversion runs in seconds and the numbered PDF is ready to download immediately. Files are deleted from our servers right after download — typically within the same session and always within one hour.

6 position choices

Bottom or top, left, center or right — place numbers exactly where your layout needs them.

4 number formats

Plain numbers, Page N, Page N of Total, or dash-surrounded — matching any document style.

Full typography control

Six font families, eight size options, any colour — with a live preview before you upload.

Skip cover & custom start

Leave the first page unnumbered and start counting from any number you choose.

Tips for Adding Page Numbers

Use Skip first page for documents with a cover page or title page — the cover stays clean and numbering begins from page 2, which will display as page 1 (or any custom starting number you set).
For formal documents like legal briefs or academic papers, Bottom Center with Page 1 of N format and Times Roman font is the conventional professional style.
For internal reports or presentations, Bottom Right with plain numbers and a light grey colour (#888888) keeps numbers visible without drawing attention away from the content.
If your PDF already has a header or footer, check which corner it occupies and choose a position that does not overlap. Use Top Center or Bottom Center if the existing content is only in the corners.
Use Start numbering at to offset the count when this PDF is one chapter in a larger document — for example, if the previous section ended at page 24, set start at 25.
If the page numbers are not visible after download, the PDF may have a white background box covering the margin area. Try a different position, or use Compress PDF first to flatten the file, then re-number.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is adding page numbers to a PDF completely free?

Yes, completely free with no hidden conditions. There are no watermarks added to your PDF, no account or payment information required at any stage, and no cap on how many files you can process in a day or a month. Convixy's tools are funded by advertising, not by paywalls or subscription fees, so every position, format, font and colour option is available to every visitor without restriction.

The only constraint is a 15 MB upload limit per file, which is designed to keep processing fast and reliable for everyone. This comfortably covers the vast majority of text-based PDFs, including lengthy reports and books; documents that exceed it are almost always image-heavy scans, in which case running the file through our Compress PDF tool first will usually bring it under the limit.

Will the page numbers be permanent in the PDF?

Yes. The numbers are stamped directly into the page content stream of the PDF, not added as an annotation, form field, or overlay layer that a viewer could toggle off or a recipient could strip out. They appear consistently when the document is printed, viewed in any PDF reader on any operating system, displayed inline in a browser, or converted to another file format.

The result is functionally identical to opening the PDF in Adobe Acrobat and manually adding a header or footer with page numbering, except it happens automatically and in seconds. Because the numbers become part of the page itself, they will also appear correctly if the PDF is later merged with other files using our Merge PDF tool.

Can I skip numbering the first page (cover page)?

Yes. Enable the Skip first page toggle and the first page of your PDF will have no number added at all, while every subsequent page is numbered starting from your chosen start number. This is the standard convention for documents with a cover page, title page, or title slide that should present cleanly without a number sitting in the corner.

If you want to skip several pages at the beginning — for example a cover page followed by a table of contents — use Split PDF first to separate that front matter from the main body, add page numbers to the main body only using the start-at field to account for the front matter's page count, then rejoin the sections with Merge PDF.

What number formats are available?

Four formats are supported, each suited to a different type of document. 1, 2, 3 adds a plain, unadorned number and is the most common choice for everyday documents. Page 1 spells out the word "Page" before the number, which reads more clearly on printed handouts. Page 1 of N adds the total page count alongside the current page, which is particularly useful for documents submitted to institutions, reviewers, or clients who need an easy way to confirm they have received every page.

- 1 - surrounds the number with dashes, a typographic convention commonly seen in books, novels, and formal printed reports. All four formats respect whatever starting number and skip-first-page settings you choose, so the numbering logic stays consistent regardless of which style you pick.

Can I start numbering from a number other than 1?

Yes. Use the Start numbering at field to set any starting number from 1 up to 9999. This matters most when the PDF you are uploading is only one section of a larger document whose other sections are numbered separately — for example, if you are adding page numbers to Chapter 3 and the previous chapters ended on page 46, set the start number to 47 so the numbering continues seamlessly once all sections are combined.

This field works together with Skip first page: if you skip the first page and set the start number to 1, the second page of your document will display as "1", which is the standard behaviour for a cover page followed by a numbered body.

What fonts and colours are available?

Eight fonts are available: Arial, Arial Bold, Times New Roman, Times New Roman Bold, Courier New, Courier New Bold, Helvetica, and Helvetica Bold. Arial and Times New Roman are rendered using Liberation fonts, which are metrically identical to their Microsoft counterparts, so spacing and line width match what you would see if the numbers were added directly inside Word or Acrobat.

Font size ranges from 8 to 18 points, which covers everything from a subtle, unobtrusive footer number to a large, clearly visible number for presentation handouts. Colour can be set instantly by clicking any of the eight preset swatches, or by opening the colour picker to choose any custom hex colour — useful if you want the page number to match a specific brand colour used elsewhere in the document.

Can I add page numbers to a password-protected PDF?

No — PDFs with an owner password that restricts editing cannot have content added or modified until that restriction is lifted, since the encryption is specifically designed to prevent exactly this kind of change. Attempting to process a restricted file will fail during conversion.

To resolve this, open the file in Adobe Acrobat or a free tool such as PDF24, remove the password restriction using the original password (you must know it to legitimately unlock the file), save the unlocked copy, and then upload that version here. If you only need to remove a password and don't need page numbers, our Unlock PDF tool handles that step directly.

Are my files private and secure?

Yes. All transfers between your device and Convixy's servers use HTTPS encryption, so the file is protected in transit. Once the numbered PDF is generated, both the uploaded original and the processed output are automatically deleted from our servers — typically within the same browsing session and always within one hour of upload, with no manual action required on your part.

We do not read, index, analyse, or share the content of your documents under any circumstances, and no account is required, so there is no user profile for your files to be linked to. This makes the tool safe to use with contracts, theses, financial statements, and other sensitive documents that simply need page numbers added before submission.

What can I do with the PDF after adding page numbers?

All Convixy PDF tools are designed to work together in a single workflow. Use Merge PDF to combine this newly numbered section with other parts of a larger document, or Compress PDF to shrink the file size for email attachments or upload portals with strict size limits. Use Split PDF if you only need to extract specific numbered pages or chapters afterwards.

Rotate PDF is useful if any pages were scanned sideways or upside down and need reorienting before the numbers are added, since numbering a misrotated page will place the number in the wrong physical corner once the page is later straightened. All of these tools are free, require no account, and delete your files automatically after download.