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How many words should a cover letter be? 250 to 400, and what to cut first

2026-10-31

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250 to 400 words. That is about three or four short paragraphs, and it fits on one page with room to spare.

If you are asking how many words should a cover letter be, the honest answer is a range, not a number.

Most career guides land on 250 to 400 words, and recruiters who skim dozens a day tend to prefer the lower end.

The harder part is not hitting the range. It is knowing what to cut when your draft comes in at 620.

▲ Shorter for internships, longer for academic jobs

The range changes with the job

• Internship or entry-level role: 200 to 300 words. You have less to prove, and padding shows
• Most professional jobs: 250 to 400 words, one page
• UK applications: the usual advice is no more than one side of A4, which works out to roughly the same range
• Academic jobs: often one to two pages, because hiring committees expect research and teaching detail

If the posting gives its own word limit, that number wins over any guide, including this one.

What to cut first

Long cover letters are rarely long because of one big section. They are long because every paragraph carries a little extra.

1. The opening that restates the job title. "I am writing to apply for the Coordinator position" says what your subject line already said. Start with why you fit
2. Your resume, retold. Job titles and dates are already on the resume. Keep only the result it cannot explain
3. Soft claims with no example. "Hard worker and team player" gives a reader nothing to check. One line about what you did beats three adjectives
4. The double closing. Two sentences of thanks and "I look forward to hearing from you" can become one short line

Cut the first two and most drafts drop 100 words without losing anything.

▲ Cut what the resume already says

Checking the count without guessing

Word processors count words, but they hide the number in a status bar, and online application boxes often show nothing at all until you hit a hard limit.

Paste the draft into the Word Counter on ZAGO.TO and the word count, character count and reading time update as you edit.

The draft autosaves on your own device, so closing the tab does not wipe your work.

Some application forms count characters, not words. A 300-word letter is usually somewhere around 1,800 characters with spaces, so check both if the box mentions a limit.

If you are also writing a college essay, the Common App essay word limit guide covers a different kind of limit.

If you only know your length in pages, see how many pages is 1,000 words.

Before you send it

▲ Five checks, one minute

• The letter is under 400 words, or under the posting's own limit
• The first sentence says why you fit, not which job you are applying for
• Every paragraph has one specific example
• It fits on one page in a normal 11 or 12 point font
• You checked the final count in the ZAGO.TO Word Counter after your last edit

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