How to Get Line Numbers in Notepad on Windows 10

To see the current line number in Notepad on Windows 10, turn on the Status Bar from the View menu, then place the text cursor on the line you want to check. Notepad shows the cursor’s position at the bottom of the window as “Ln” and “Col.” It does not put a numbered gutter beside every line, so the number appears only for the line where the cursor is positioned.

Show the current line number in Notepad

1. Open your text file in Notepad. To start a blank file, select Start, type Notepad, and open the app. Microsoft’s Notepad help page also documents how to open the app from Start.
2. Open View and select Status Bar. If there is a check mark beside Status Bar, it is already enabled. If there is no check mark, click the item once. A narrow information strip should appear along the bottom edge of the Notepad window.

3. Click in the line you want to inspect. The cursor must be inside the document. You can click near the start or end of a line; the status display updates as the cursor moves.
4. Read the Ln value at the bottom. For example, “Ln 3, Col 5” means the cursor is on line 3 and column 5. “Col” is the cursor’s position across that line.

What Notepad’s line number tells you

The status bar is a position indicator, not a permanent numbering feature. It does not insert digits into your text or display a separate number next to every line. Move the cursor to another line and the “Ln” value changes; leave it on the first line and it will continue to show line 1 even when the document contains many more lines.

A logical line is a line separated from the next one by pressing Enter. A long line may wrap onto two or more visible rows when Word Wrap is enabled, but those extra screen rows are not new lines in the text. The line number continues to identify the original logical line. Microsoft notes that Notepad can show line and column numbers with word wrapping enabled in its Windows 10 Notepad release notes.

If Status Bar is missing or unavailable

Notepad’s menus and behavior can differ by Windows 10 and Notepad revision. Try these checks in order:

• Check the menu state. Open View and click Status Bar if it is not checked. If the menu item is already checked but the strip is not visible, close and reopen the Notepad window.
• Check Word Wrap on an older revision. Open Format and look at Word Wrap. On some older Notepad builds, enabling Word Wrap disables the Status Bar option. If Status Bar is gray, click Word Wrap to turn wrapping off, then open View and enable Status Bar. This changes how long lines are displayed; it does not remove text.
• On a newer Notepad revision, keep wrapping if you prefer it. Microsoft added line and column reporting while Word Wrap is enabled, and made the Status Bar visible by default in a Windows 10 Notepad update. If your menu differs from these steps, use the Word Wrap check above as a compatibility fallback.
• Confirm the document has focus. Click in the editing area before reading the status display. The line number follows the insertion cursor, not the mouse pointer resting over the window.

Need numbers beside every line?

If you need to scan all line numbers at once, refer to a specific numbered line in a review, or work with code, Notepad’s status bar is not enough. Use an editor with a line-number gutter. For example, Visual Studio Code can show or hide line numbers in the editor margin; see Microsoft’s VS Code user interface documentation. You can still keep Notepad for quick notes and plain-text edits.

For a quick check in Notepad, the short version is: select View > Status Bar, click the target line, and read Ln at the bottom. If you need a numbered margin that stays visible for the whole document, choose a different text editor.