A cover letter should be 250 to 400 words: four or five short paragraphs on one page. Go shorter, to about 150 words, in the body of an email, for a listing that asks for a short note, or when a form's text box will not hold more. Use the full 400 only when the job gives you that much to answer.
Below, one applicant's letter appears three times, at about 150, 250 and 400 words, with notes on what each length buys.
Key points
- Aim for 250 to 400 words on one page.
- Use about 150 words for an email, a listing that asks for a short note, or a form box too small for more.
- A shorter letter keeps every result and loses the explanation. Cut the method before the evidence.
- Cut first what the reader already knows, then adjectives, then anything your resume says in the same words.
- For a character limit, plan on six characters a word. Past one page, cut words and leave the font alone.
In this guide
The short answer: 250 to 400 words on one page
A letter of 250 to 400 words fits on one page with its header. Below 250 you can state your evidence but not explain it. Above 400 you are usually retelling your resume.
| Where the letter goes | Aim for |
|---|---|
| An attached document | 250 to 400 words |
| The body of an email, with the resume attached | About 150 words |
| A text box in an application form | The box's limit, or 250 words if it allows more |
| A listing that asks for a short note | 100 to 150 words |
The upper end is right when the listing gives you more to answer: a senior role with four or five firm requirements, a change of field that needs explaining, or an employer who asks for a detailed letter. Every added sentence should carry a new fact. If the listing states a length, follow the listing.
One letter at 150, 250 and 400 words
Nadia Rahman, a senior support adviser at a booking-software company, is applying to lead the support team at Wrenfield Payroll. The listing asks for three things: faster replies, experience training advisers, and someone to launch live chat. Each version answers all three with the same facts in the same tone.
About 150 words: the short note
Senior support adviser applying for Support Team Lead, written for a form's text box · Professional tone · 147 words
Dear Mr Sandoval,
Over the past year I cut the median first reply on email tickets at Calderwick Bookings from 11 hours to under 31. Your listing for a Support Team Lead asks for faster replies, adviser training and a live chat launch, and I have done all three2.
I trained the six advisers who joined us in the past two years and wrote the onboarding guide they started from. In March 2025 I led our move from email-only support to live chat, which now handles about half of all conversations.
Your listing says Wrenfield will open chat in January. I have made that change once3, and I know which parts of it slow the email queue down. I would be glad to walk you through how we staffed the first month, and I am free for a call any morning next week.
Yours sincerely, Nadia Rahman
Why this works
- 1The result survives every cut, with both numbers. How it was done is what goes.
- 2The letter states the match, then gives one fact for each requirement. There is no room to explain any of them.
- 3The reason for choosing this employer shrinks to one sentence, but it stays. Without it the note could go to any company.
About 250 words: the standard letter
The same application, sent as an attached one-page letter · Professional tone · 246 words
Dear Mr Sandoval,
Over the past year I cut the median first reply on email tickets at Calderwick Bookings from 11 hours to under 3. Your listing for a Support Team Lead asks for faster replies, adviser training and a live chat launch. I have spent two years doing all three.
The reply time came down without extra staff. I rewrote our triage rules1 so that billing and login tickets, the two kinds customers cannot work around, go to the front of the queue. I also replaced 60 saved replies with 22 that advisers trusted enough to use. I review the numbers with the whole team every Monday.
I trained the six advisers who joined us in the past two years and wrote the onboarding guide they started from. Each spends a week shadowing live tickets, then a week answering with me reading alongside. All six were handling a full queue within a month. In March 2025 I led our move from email-only support to live chat, which now handles about half of all conversations.
Your listing says Wrenfield will open chat in January. I know which parts of that change slow the email queue down, and we steadied ours by staffing chat in two-hour blocks, so nobody answered both at once2. I would be glad to walk you through how we staffed the first month and what I would do differently3. I am free for a call any morning next week.
Yours sincerely, Nadia Rahman
Why this works
- 1Most of the extra hundred words go on method. A result with its method attached is harder to doubt, and gives the interviewer a question to ask.
- 2One working detail from the chat launch, of the kind only the person who ran it would know.
- 3The offer of a frank account is as far as this length goes. Still left out: the size of her team, a second result and her plan for the first month. None is needed to answer the three requirements.
About 400 words: the upper end
The same application, for a listing that asks for a detailed letter · Professional tone · 395 words
Dear Mr Sandoval,
Over the past year I cut the median first reply on email tickets at Calderwick Bookings from 11 hours to under 3. I am the senior adviser in a team of nine1 there, answering about 1,400 tickets a week from salons and clinics. Your listing for a Support Team Lead asks for faster replies, adviser training and a live chat launch. I have spent two years doing all three.
The reply time came down without extra staff. I rewrote our triage rules so that billing and login tickets, the two kinds customers cannot work around, go to the front of the queue. I also replaced 60 saved replies with 22 that advisers trusted enough to use. I review the numbers with the whole team every Monday, and over the same year our satisfaction score rose from 86% to 93%2.
I trained the six advisers who joined us in the past two years and wrote the onboarding guide they started from. Each spends a week shadowing live tickets, then a week answering with me reading alongside. All six were handling a full queue within a month, and two of them now train new starters themselves. I also run a fortnightly review where each adviser brings one ticket that went badly, and we rewrite the reply together.
In March 2025 I led our move from email-only support to live chat, which now handles about half of all conversations. In the first week, email replies slipped3 because advisers were answering both at once. We fixed it by staffing chat in two-hour blocks, and by writing the 15 chat answers we needed most before we opened to every customer. Email replies were back to their earlier speed within a fortnight.
Your listing says Wrenfield will open chat in January, and that your customers are small businesses running payroll to a deadline. A salon can take a booking by phone while it waits for us. An employer with wages due on Friday cannot wait, which is why I would start with triage for anything that stops a pay run4, before chat opens.
I would be glad to walk you through how we staffed the first month and what I would do differently. I can bring the triage rules and the onboarding guide, and I am free for a call any morning next week.
Yours sincerely, Nadia Rahman
Why this works
- 1Scale. The reader can now compare her team with theirs, which matters for a lead role.
- 2A second result, which answers a fair doubt: replies got faster and customers still rated them higher.
- 3Only this length has room for something that went wrong and how it was fixed.
- 4A plan for the first month. It belongs because the listing describes a specific project. Without one, cut it.
What to cut first when a letter is too long
Cut in this order and stop when you reach the length you need. The first four cuts cost the letter nothing.
- What the reader already knows: that you are applying, where you saw the advert, that your resume is attached.
- Claims about your character. "Hard-working" and "passionate" can go without the letter losing a fact.
- Anything your resume says in the same words: job titles, dates, lists of duties.
- Wind-up phrases: "I believe that", "in order to", "I would like to take this opportunity to".
- The method, before the result. Keep what happened and shorten how, as the 150-word letter does.
- Your weakest example. Two requirements answered with evidence are better than three answered thinly. Cut this last.
Weak
I am writing to express my strong interest in the Support Team Lead position at Wrenfield Payroll, which I saw advertised on your careers page.
Strong
Over the past year I cut the median first reply on email tickets at Calderwick Bookings from 11 hours to under 3.
The weak opening spends 25 words on what the reader already knows. The strong one is three words shorter and is the best evidence in the letter.
Weak
In my current role I have been responsible for the training and onboarding of new members of the support team, which is something that I have found to be very rewarding.
Strong
I trained the six advisers who joined us in the past two years and wrote the onboarding guide they started from.
Ten words shorter, with two facts the first version had no room for: how many people, and the guide.
A letter written in Cover Letter Guru can be rewritten with one click: Shorter or Longer. There is an Undo if you preferred the version before.
Write and resize my letterCharacter limits in application forms
When a form counts characters, not words, plan on six characters a word: call it five letters and a space. That is a rule of thumb, and plain writing can run shorter. The three letters above come to about 780, 1,350 and 2,150 characters with spaces, nearer five and a half a word, so planning at six leaves a margin.
| Limit | At six characters a word (rounded down) | What fits |
|---|---|---|
| 500 characters | 80 words | A result, the role and one sentence on why this employer |
| 1,000 characters | 165 words | The 150-word letter above |
| 1,500 characters | 250 words | The 250-word letter above |
| 2,000 characters | 330 words | A standard letter with one more example |
| 2,500 characters | 415 words | The 400-word letter above |
- Check what the box counts. Some counters include spaces and line breaks and some do not. Type a test sentence and watch the number.
- Write the full letter in a document first, then cut in the order above and paste it in.
- Drop the header, date and address block. The form already has your details.
- Finish a little under the limit, in case the form counts differently from your editor.
A limit is a ceiling, not a target: if the box allows 4,000 characters, a 250-word letter is still the right answer. For finished letters under 200 words, see short cover letter examples.
Paragraphs, sentences and the one-page rule
- Paragraphs: two to four sentences and under about 80 words each. When a letter grows, add a paragraph and leave the others the size they were. That is why the letters above have three, four and six body paragraphs.
- Sentences: aim for 15 to 20 words, with a short one now and then, and split anything over 30. Read the letter aloud: where you run out of breath, put a full stop.
- One page: a standard font at 10.5 to 12 point and margins of about 2.5 cm. If the letter runs onto a second page, cut words. Shrinking the font makes the same length harder to read; margins can come in to 2 cm for a line or two, and no further. See Cover letter format.
Common questions
- Can a cover letter be two pages?
- Only when the employer asks for one, for example a supporting statement that must answer a list of criteria one by one. Otherwise keep to one page by cutting words, not by shrinking the font.
- Is 150 words too short for a cover letter?
- Not for an email, a small form box or a listing that asks for a short note, as long as it holds a result, the role and a reason for choosing this employer. For an attached letter with no stated limit, aim for 250.
- Does the word count include the greeting and sign-off?
- Yes: count from "Dear" to your name, which is how the counts on this page are worked out. The header with your contact details and the employer's address is not part of the 250 to 400 words.
- How many paragraphs should a cover letter have?
- Four or five short paragraphs for a standard letter of 250 to 400 words, each of two to four sentences. At the top of that range a sixth can fit, as long as every paragraph stays under about 80 words.
Related guides
How to write a cover letter in 7 steps: one letter in 3 tones
A cover letter is four or five short paragraphs that match what the job asks for to what you have done. Seven steps, a template and one letter in three tones.
Short cover letter examples: 10 under 200 words
Ten short cover letters under 200 words, each with notes: for a page, an application form's text box and the body of an email. Plus a template to copy.
Cover letter format: layout, fonts, file type and 8 settings
How to format a cover letter: the order of the parts, eight page settings in one table, safe fonts, PDF or Word, file names and a plain-text version.
How to email a cover letter: 12 subject lines, 3 templates
Follow the listing on whether to paste your cover letter into the email or attach it. Twelve subject lines, three templates and a checklist before you send.
Write yours in a couple of minutes
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