Quick answer: how do I add page numbers to a PDF?
Open the PDFTeq Page Number tool,
select your PDF, choose a position (e.g. Bottom Center), pick a start page if you want to skip a cover page,
set a format like Page {n} of {total}, and click Add Page Numbers. The file
downloads instantly — nothing is uploaded to a server.
Submitting a legal brief, a thesis, or a corporate report without page numbers reads as unfinished. Most people try to fix this by converting the PDF back to Word, adding numbers, and re-exporting — which routinely breaks tables, fonts, and layout. This guide covers a faster way that doesn't touch the rest of your document.
Why processing happens in your browser, not on a server
Most free PDF tools — including several of the largest ones — upload your file to their servers and delete it after roughly an hour. That's a reasonable privacy practice, but it still means your document leaves your device at some point.
PDFTeq's page-numbering tool uses pdf-lib, a JavaScript library that runs the entire process inside your browser's memory. There's no upload step to skip — there simply isn't one in the code.
Verify it yourself: open your browser's developer tools (F12), click the Network tab, then number a PDF. You won't see a request carrying your file's contents anywhere — that's the difference between "we say it's private" and something you can check.
Step-by-step: add page numbers to a PDF
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Open the tool and select your file
Go to Add Page Numbers and drag your PDF in, or click to browse.
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Choose position and font size
Bottom Center, Top Center, Bottom Right, or Top Right — plus Small, Medium, or Large text.
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Set a start page (optional)
Enter 2 to leave a cover page unnumbered — numbering restarts at 1 from the page you choose.
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Set a format and process
Use
Page {n} of {total}, plain{n}, or a prefix likeCASE-{n}, then click Add Page Numbers to download instantly.
Page numbering vs. Bates numbering — what's the real difference?
These two get confused often, so it's worth being precise:
- Page numbering counts pages within one document, usually for readability — "Page 3 of 12".
- Bates numbering is a legal convention for stamping a unique, sequential identifier across an entire set of documents in a case (often with a fixed prefix and zero-padded digits, e.g.
SMITH000001), so any page can be located by its stamp alone regardless of which document it came from.
PDFTeq's format field lets you add a prefix to a sequential number (CASE-{n}), which covers simple single-document exhibit stamping. It does not currently batch-number across multiple files with a shared running count the way dedicated legal e-discovery software does — if you need true cross-document Bates stamping for a large case file set, that's a gap worth knowing about upfront rather than discovering later.
Common questions this guide's format field answers
Skip the cover page
Set "Start numbering from page" to 2 (or any page) — earlier pages stay blank, numbering restarts at 1.
Font size
Small, Medium, or Large — chosen before processing, applied to every stamped page.
Custom prefixes
EXHIBIT-A-{n} or any text you want ahead of the running number.
"Page X of Y" format
Type Page {n} of {total} — {total} reflects only the pages actually being numbered, not the whole file, if you've set a start page.
PDFTeq vs. other free options
| Aspect | PDFTeq | Adobe Acrobat Online | Most cloud tools |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Requires sign-in; paid Pro trial for editing | Usually free with limits |
| Where processing happens | Your browser (verifiable) | Adobe's servers | Provider's servers, auto-deleted after ~1 hour |
| Account required | No | Yes | Varies |
| Custom start page | Yes | Yes | Varies by provider |
| Multiple files at once | Not yet — one file at a time | Yes | Often yes |
We're not going to pretend we match every provider's batch-processing feature set — if you need to number a large batch of files right now, a tool with multi-file support will save you time until we add it.
Pro tip
Numbering a set of reports you're about to combine? Use Merge PDF first, then number the merged file — that way {total} reflects the full combined page count, not just one section.
Frequently asked questions
Ready to number your PDF?
Choose your position, format, and start page — done in your browser in seconds.
Open the ToolFree • No sign-up • No file upload
Written by PDFTEQ Engineering
Document tooling team
We build client-side document tools and try to only describe features that exist in the tool at time of publishing. Spot a mismatch between this guide and the tool? Let us know.