Short answer. How much does proofreading cost per word? At Clean Page Press it is $0.016 a word, which is $16 per 1,000 words. A 70,000-word novel comes to $1,120. On a double-spaced manuscript page that works out at about $4 to $5, but per-page prices vary, because pages do not hold the same number of words.
Key points
- Proofreading costs $0.016 a word here, $16 per 1,000 words.
- It covers spelling, punctuation and typos.
- 5 business days per 50,000 words.
- Per-page quotes depend on how many words a page holds. Ask before you compare.
- Reedsy's guide puts proofreading at $0.014 to $0.021 a word.
How much does proofreading cost per word?
Proofreading costs $0.016 a word at Clean Page Press. We quote it as $16 per 1,000 words, because round numbers are easier to check: divide your word count by 1,000 and multiply by 16. The price goes on the quote before you pay, and it covers spelling, punctuation and typos.
Here is what that comes to for common lengths, from our book editing page:
| Word count | Proofread |
|---|---|
| 30,000 | $480 |
| 50,000 | $800 |
| 70,000 | $1,120 |
| 80,000 | $1,280 |
| 100,000 | $1,600 |
The days are 5 business days per 50,000 words, so a 100,000-word book takes 10.
How much does proofreading cost per page?
Per page, our proofread works out at roughly $4 to $5 on a double-spaced manuscript page. The exact figure depends on the page. That is the problem with per-page pricing: a "page" is not a fixed number of words, so two per-page quotes can hide very different per-word prices.
We measured it on 13 October 2026 with our sample manuscript, the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice typed in Word: Times New Roman 12, double spaced, US Letter. It is 849 words over three pages. Page one held 245 words, because the chapter heading takes space. Page two held 280. Page three held 324, because its speeches run longer and fewer lines end short.
At $16 per 1,000 words, those pages cost $3.92, $4.48 and $5.18 to proofread. Same file, same settings, a $1.26 spread. If an editor quotes per page, ask how many words they count as a page, then turn it into a per-1,000-word price before you compare.
How does our price compare with other proofreaders?
Our $0.016 a word sits inside the range Reedsy publishes. Its editing cost guide, read on 13 October 2026, lists proofreading at $0.014 to $0.021 a word and gives $1,600 for "a final proof" of an 80,000-word book. Ours for the same book is $1,280.
The same guide notes that "a proofreader's rates may be lower at $0.012 per word." Rates move with the editor's experience, the genre and the length, so compare what is included, not only the number. Ask whether the price covers one pass or two, and whether you get the changes in your own file.
What does a proofread include, and what doesn't it?
A proofread catches spelling, punctuation and typos, and nothing above them. It does not fix grammar that fails, make spellings consistent across the book, or rework sentences. Those belong to a copyedit, which costs $24 per 1,000 words here and includes the proofread, so you never buy both.
In our sample chapter, a proofread flags the two dashes typed as double hyphens, "go--or" and "girls--though", and the old spelling "develope". It does not decide whether "neighbourhood" should become "neighborhood". That is a copyedit decision. Our post on copyediting vs proofreading shows where the line falls on the same chapter.
The fix we do for this: if your book has been edited and needs the final check before it is formatted, that is a proofread at $16 per 1,000 words. Send us your word count and we reply with the price and the dates.
Is a proofread worth it if I have a spellchecker?
Yes, if you are selling the book. A spellchecker passes any real word, so "form" for "from" goes through. KDP's content quality guide, read on 13 October 2026, says "Typos are among the most common quality issues customers report." Reported issues can bring a quality warning on your book's page or remove it from sale until fixed.
KDP itself asks you to run spelling checks before you upload. Our post on whether you need a proofreader before KDP covers what KDP's own checks catch.
When should the proofread happen?
The proofread should be the last edit and come before formatting. Once the pages are set, even a one-word fix can reflow a paragraph and shift where a page breaks. When you order both from us, the formatting days start when you approve the edited file, so the pages are set once.
If you want to budget the whole book, our posts on what a developmental edit costs and what book formatting costs cover the other parts.
What else do authors ask about proofreading cost?
$16 here, which is $0.016 a word.
$1,120 at our rate.
About $4 to $5 on a double-spaced page here, depending on how many words the page holds.
5 business days per 50,000 words.
No. Our copyedit includes the proofread, so buy one or the other.
What should you do next?
Find your word count in Word's status bar, divide it by 1,000 and multiply by 16. That is your proofread. If you were quoted per page somewhere else, divide that quote by the words on one of your pages to compare it with ours. The rate and the days are on our book editing page.
