How to use the manuscript page count calculator
Publishers, contest rules and course syllabi often state length as "manuscript pages" rather than a raw word count. A standard manuscript page is conventionally treated as roughly 250 words of double-spaced 12pt type, and many style guides use about 1,800 characters as an equivalent measure. This tool counts your pasted text and divides it both ways, so you can quote whichever figure your submission asks for.
Both defaults are editable. If your publisher works to 300 words per page or a different character budget, change the number and the result recalculates instantly. Page counts are always rounded up, because a partially filled page still counts as a page.
Words are counted by splitting on whitespace, and characters are counted by grapheme, so one emoji counts as one character rather than two. That matches what a reader sees on the page, but it can differ from the UTF-16 length some submission forms report.
Everything runs inside your browser. Nothing you paste is uploaded, which makes the tool safe to use on unpublished drafts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Always up. With 250 words per page, 251 words is two pages, because a partly filled page is still a page in a submission count.
Use whichever your submission guidelines name. Word-based pages are the usual convention in English-language publishing; character-based pages are more common for typesetting and translation quotes.