How to Add Bates Numbers to a PDF for Free

If you are involved in litigation, legal discovery, or any process that requires producing documents to another party or a court, you have almost certainly encountered Bates numbering. It is one of those legal conventions that seems obscure until you need it — and then it is non-negotiable.

What are Bates numbers?

Bates numbers are sequential identifiers stamped on each page of a document set. A typical Bates number looks like ACME-000001, where "ACME" is a prefix identifying the producing party and "000001" is the page number. Each page in a production gets a unique, sequential Bates number.

The convention is named after Edwin Bates, who patented a numbering machine in the 1890s. The name stuck long after physical stamping machines were replaced by software.

When are Bates numbers required?

• Discovery in civil litigation — when producing documents in response to a discovery request, Bates numbers allow both parties to reference specific pages unambiguously (e.g., "see Exhibit A at ACME-000047")
• Court filings — many courts require exhibits to be Bates-stamped for the record
• Due diligence — in M&A transactions, documents shared in a data room are often Bates-numbered for audit trail purposes
• Regulatory submissions — some regulatory bodies require numbered pages for document traceability
• Arbitration — arbitration panels frequently require numbered document productions

What the stamp typically contains

A standard Bates stamp has three components:

• Prefix — usually an abbreviation of the producing party's name or the case/matter number (e.g., SMITH, DEF, PLF, ACME2024)
• Number — a zero-padded sequential number (e.g., 000001, 000002) — the padding ensures alphabetical and numerical sort order match
• Position — typically the bottom-right corner of each page, though some courts or parties specify a different position

Why most free tools are not suitable for legal documents

Most online PDF tools that offer Bates numbering either charge for it (it is typically a premium feature in tools like Adobe Acrobat Pro) or upload your document to a server. For documents produced in litigation — which are often subject to protective orders and attorney-client privilege — uploading to a third-party server is not appropriate.

How to add Bates numbers with Locdone

Locdone's Bates Number PDF tool is free, requires no account, and processes the document entirely in your browser. The document never leaves your machine.

1. Go to locdone.com/bates-number-pdf
2. Drop your PDF in
3. Set your prefix (e.g., SMITH or DEF)
4. Set the starting number (useful when continuing a numbering sequence across multiple documents)
5. Choose the position — bottom-right is the default
6. Click Apply and download the stamped PDF

The stamps are rendered in Courier, the standard monospaced font used in legal documents. The output is court-ready.

Continuing numbering across multiple documents

When producing multiple documents in a single production, each document needs to pick up where the last one left off. For example, if the first document ends at ACME-000043, the second document should start at ACME-000044.

Set the starting number field accordingly for each document. Keep a note of the last Bates number used so you can continue the sequence without gaps or overlaps.