How to Add Page Numbers in Google Docs

✱ Note: If you have a page less format, you won’t see this option so first make sure you’re in pages format.

You can check this in: “File” > “Page setup“.

Make sure to set it to “Pages“.

Now that you’re on the Page Mode, you can add page numbers in Google Docs by going to:

“Insert” > “Page numbers“, like this 👇

Use one of the four options to place the page numbers wherever you want.

What are those 4 options?

They are locations in the page:

• The top two are for headers, bottom two for footers.
• Left options include the first page while the right ones don’t.

Click on “More options“ for better control.

I’ll pop in the page numbers to the header.

And now we have the page numbers.

Yay!

🥳🥳🥳

What if I want to start from any page?

Like not from the first page …

No problem. Go back to the Options popup.

Just uncheck the “Show on first page“ like that …

What about other pages?

Then follow these steps:

How To Start Page Numbering From Specific Page In Google Docs

Note: For this to work properly, you need to place the cursor AT THE START of the page where you want to start the page number.

Then go to: “Insert” > “Break” > “Section break (next page)“.

If it jumped to the next page, just hit Backspace to delete the page. If not carry on to the next step:

Now when you add the page numbers like before, you should see two check boxes:

• Different first page
• Link to previous

Uncheck the “Link to Previous” option.

Yes, I see it!

What’s next?

Great!

Now click on “Options” > “Page numbers“.

Select “Start at 1”.

And hit Apply!

See that?

Now it’s starting with 01 right where we want it.

That’s it.

Hold on!

Previous page numbers are still visible.

Scroll up to the page right before the one where you added the page break delete the page number from that page.

You’ll see that all the other pages before this one have automatically lost their page numbers too.

How To Add MLA Page Numbers In Google Docs

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is a set of guidelines for formatting and citing academic papers

According to this style, page numbers should be in the top right corner of each page, about half an inch from the top edge and lined up with the right margin.

To achieve this in Google Docs, we need to select the first option in our page number menu.

Then go to: “Options” > “Header Format“.

Set the value of “Header (inches from top)“ to 0.5.

Hit Apply!

What?

Sorry, I was on my phone …

👀 No problem!

Let’s see how to do this on mobile then.

How To Add Page Numbers In Google Docs iPad/mobile

For this example, I’ll be using my phone.

Just fire up Google Docs in your iPad or mobile.

Go to your Document & Tap the edit button at the bottom.

Also make sure you’re NOT in Pageless Mode.

To check this tap on the three dots on the top right and go to “Page setup“.

Then disable the “Pageless“ option.

Next, go back and Tap the Plus (+) icon up top.

Scroll down and Tap on “Page number“.

Select one of the four options.

There you go.

Some Tips

•••

Customize Your Page Numbers

If you want to add a prefix or suffix to your page numbers, you can do so by clicking on “More options” when adding page numbers. For example, you can add “Page ” before each number.

Use Roman Numerals or Letters

I didn’t cover this in the post since there is no native way to do this. (At least not yet). You have to edit each page number and replace it with roman numbers.

Update Page Numbers Automatically

Google Docs will automatically update your page numbers if you add or remove pages from your document. (By Default)

We’ve walked through how to add page numbers to your Google Docs – from start to finish. Along the way, we looked at all the ways you can tweak those numbers to fit your document perfectly.