How to Add Page Numbers in Google Docs

Format Google Docs page numbers to your liking

By
Coletta Teske Whitehead
Coletta Teske
Coletta Teske Whitehead
Writer
  • Central Washington University
Coletta Teske is a Lifewire writer focusing on consumer electronics. She has 30 years' experience writing for Adobe, Boeing, Microsoft, and many others.
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Updated on August 4, 2020

When you create a multi-page document in Google Docs, one way to help readers find their way around the document and keep track of where they’re at is to add page numbers.

Instructions in this article apply to the Google Docs web app.

Stack of opened books, magazines, exercise notebooks with flying numbers
domin_domin/Getty Images

How to Number All Pages in Google Docs Automatically

When your document requires numbers on every page, insert them and set them to automatically update when pages are added or deleted from the document.

  1. Open a document. The document can be open to any page.

  2. Select Insert > Header & page number.

    The Insert tab in Google Docs to add a page number to all pages of a document

  3. Select Page number, then choose to either add page numbers to the header of every page or to add page numbers to the footer of every page.

    Insert a page number in a Google Docs document

    The icons for these options display the numbers 1 and 2 in the corner.

  4. The page numbers are added to either the header or footer, depending on your choice.

    Page number added to the header of a Google Docs document

How to Start Page Numbering on Page 2

If you don’t want the cover page to be assigned a page number, start the page numbering on the second page of the document. This way, the second page of the document is page one.

  1. Select Insert > Header & page number > Page number.

  2. Choose to add page numbers to the header of every page except the first page or to add page numbers to the footer of every page except the first page.

    Add page numbers to every page but the first page in Google Docs

    The icons for these options display only the number 1 in the corner.

  3. The first page of the document won't have a page number, while the second page is numbered as page one.

    Page numbering starts on page 2 in Google Docs

How to Hide the Number on the First Page

If there are page numbers on every page of your document, but you don’t want to display the page number on the first page, remove the number from the first page. This doesn’t affect the page numbering of the other pages in the document, meaning the second page, for example, remains page No. 2.

  1. Go to the first page of the document.

  2. Select the header or footer, depending on where the page number is located.

  3. Select the Different first page check box.

    Select the Different first page text box to hide the page number of the first page

  4. Select the page number, if it isn’t highlighted.

  5. Press Delete or replace the page number with any text.

  6. Select anywhere outside the header or footer.

  7. The page number no longer appears on the first page.

    Hiding the page number of the first page of a Google Docs document

  8. The page numbering continues on the second page and the second page is numbered as page two.

    The second page remains page number two in Google Docs

How to Move a Page Number

By default, the page number appears along the right margin of the document. However, you're free to move it to the center or to the left.

  1. Select the header or footer, depending on where the page number is located.

  2. Go to the toolbar and select either Left Align or Center Align.

    Select Left Align or Center Align to move the location of the page number

  3. The page numbering moves to the selected location.

    Move a page number by changing the paragraph alignment

    To change the look of the page numbers, select a page number, go to the toolbar, then change the typeface, size, and text color.

How to Delete Page Numbers in Google Docs

If you later decide you don’t want to show page numbers in the document, delete the page numbering. To do so, select any page number then press Delete.

How to Add a Page Count

If the document needs to specify the number of pages in a document, add a page count. This page count updates when pages are added or deleted from the document.

  1. Select the relevant place in the document.

    Add a page count to a Google Docs document

  2. Select Insert > Header & page number > Page count.

    The Insert menu in Google Docs to insert a page count

  3. The total number of pages appears in the selected location.

    Add a page count to a document in Google Docs
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