Add Page Numbers to a PDF

Yes, completely free. Our Add Page Numbers tool has no hidden costs, no watermarks, and no registration requirement. You can process as many files as you need, each up to 100MB, at no charge. We believe professional PDF tools should be accessible to everyone — students, freelancers, and businesses alike.

Your files are fully protected. All uploads and downloads use 256-bit SSL/TLS encryption during transfer. Processing happens on our isolated Hetzner server infrastructure in Germany — your file is never shared, analysed for commercial purposes, or stored longer than necessary. Every uploaded and processed file is automatically and permanently deleted within 24 hours of processing.

Supported file types: This tool accepts PDF files up to 100MB each. One PDF at a time, and the numbering is applied to every page from whichever starting number you choose.

Yes, and the position picker is a six-cell grid built for touch. Tap the corner you want, set a starting number, done. The one thing worth checking on a bigger screen afterwards is that the new number has not landed on top of a footer the document already had.

No — every page in the document is stamped, including the first. The only numbering control is the starting value, and it changes what the first page reads, not whether it is numbered: set it to 2 and the cover shows "2" while the following page shows "3". There is no option to leave a page blank. If a cover really must stay clean, the reliable route is to split the cover off with Extract Pages, number the remaining document on its own, and put the two back together with Merge PDF.

This is the standard case after combining files, because each source was numbered for itself and the merged document inherits none of it. Choose a position — bottom centre is the safe default for a report — and set the starting number so the count begins where you want it. Note that every page is stamped, the cover included; the starting value only decides what the first page reads. If the cover must stay unnumbered, separate it with Extract Pages first, number the body, then rejoin the two with Merge PDF.

Almost always a position clash rather than a fault: the source document already carried a footer, and the new sequence was placed in the same spot. Move the new numbers to the opposite corner, which readers accept perfectly well and which leaves both legible. If the old footer has to disappear, take the margin off with Crop PDF before numbering — checking first that nothing else lives in the strip you are about to lose, since cropping applies the same trim to every page.

Not here — this places a page sequence and nothing else, so a document title, a matter reference or a confidentiality marking is outside what it does. For text that should appear on every page, Add Watermark stamps a phrase you supply and lets you set its opacity and angle. For a note on one specific page rather than all of them, place a text box with Edit PDF instead.

Treat them as permanent. The sequence is drawn into each page as part of the page content, exactly like the text that was already there — it is not a live field that recounts itself, so if you later insert or delete pages the numbers do not follow. That is a good reason to number last, once the document is final. If the order does change afterwards, the clean route is to go back to the unnumbered original and number it again rather than trying to correct the stamped copy.