How to Change Margins in Google Docs

Apr 19, 2021

When you change a page's margins in Google Docs, you're changing the amount of space you want between the edge of the page and the text. You can change the margins on all four sides of a page and customize the margins however you see fit.

What's the default Google Docs margin?

The standard margin that Google Docs uses is a standard 1-inch margin on all four sides. (This is the standard accepted for most school papers too, by the way. You should also double-space your Google Doc for an essay.) At the end of this guide, we'll show you how to change the margins to a new default if you wish!

Two ways to change the margins in Google Docs

We'll show you both ways to change the margins in this guide.

Dragging the margins on the page
Using "Page Setup"

Google Workspace

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We recommend this option for quick changes to the margins or when you need to set different margins for different parts of a bit of text.

Move your mouse cursor to the edge of the ruler near the margin you want to change.
You should see the cursor change to indicate that you're changing the margins. (And you'll see a little text box pop up like the one in the image above.)
Drag the margin to set it to a new value.
Repeat for other margins you want to change, including the top and bottom margin.

Be careful not to drag the little blue triangle or square, which are for setting the indent and first-line indent respectively.

We recommend using "page setup" to change margins for an entire document or to set a new page margin as your default.

Go to File.
Select Page Setup.

From here you can edit the page margins (shown in inches) on all sides of the page. You can apply to the whole document or just a highlighted selection if you choose.

How to change your default page margin in Google Docs

While you're in the Page Setup screen, select Set as default to set the new margin selection as your default page margin for each new Google Doc.

Change Default Font

Show all in the Google Docs Basics series