One page. 250 to 400 words. Three or four paragraphs. If you only came for the number, that is it, and you can stop reading.
The reason people keep searching for a better answer is that the number is not the problem. Nobody writes a 900-word letter on purpose. They write it because they cannot tell which 500 words are doing nothing, and "keep it to one page" is useless advice when every sentence feels load-bearing.
So this is mostly about the cutting.
Why one page is the real constraint
Length rules for cover letters are conventions, not policies, and they exist because of how the document gets read: quickly, often on a phone, usually after the resume and often by someone deciding whether to keep reading at all.
Purdue's writing lab frames the letter's job as introducing you, explaining why you are writing, and drawing the reader's attention to specific qualifications. Every one of those is an act of selection. A long letter is not a thorough letter; it is a letter where the selection never happened.
There is a practical version of the same point. A one-page letter in 11 pt with normal margins holds roughly 400 to 450 words before it looks cramped. Land under that and the page has white space, which reads as confidence.
Target counts, by where you actually are
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A blanket 350 helps nobody. Here is what I would aim for.
| Your situation | Target words | Paragraphs | The thing that eats your words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Student or internship | 200–300 | 3 | Coursework lists nobody asked for |
| First job out of school | 250–350 | 3 | Explaining why you chose your major |
| Mid-career, direct match | 300–400 | 3–4 | Narrating your whole resume in prose |
| Career changer | 300–400 | 4 | Justifying the change for two paragraphs |
| Senior or leadership | 350–450 | 4 | Scope creep — every project gets a mention |
| Academic or research post | Follow the posting | — | Different genre entirely; the limits above don't apply |
These are working ranges, not findings from a study. The one I would defend hardest is the career changer row: the instinct is to spend half the letter on an apology for your history, and the letters that work do the opposite — one clean sentence on the pivot, then three on the evidence.
A 512-word letter, cut to 318
Invented candidate, real edit. Jordan is applying for an operations coordinator role at a mid-size logistics company. First draft: 512 words. Here is where the 194 went.
| What changed | Before | After | Saved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening paragraph about admiring the company | 84 | 31 | 53 |
| "As you can see from my resume" recap | 61 | 0 | 61 |
| Three achievement sentences, tightened | 138 | 96 | 42 |
| Paragraph explaining a 2023 career gap | 72 | 34 | 38 |
| Closing with availability and phone number | 47 | 47 | 0 |
| Total | 512 | 318 | 194 |
The opening went from this:
I am writing to express my strong interest in the Operations Coordinator position at Harlow Freight, which I discovered on your careers page. I have long admired Harlow's reputation in the regional freight sector and believe that my background makes me an excellent fit for this opportunity and your organization.
To this:
I'm applying for the Operations Coordinator role. I spent two years fixing the same dispatch bottleneck Harlow described in the posting — 40 daily loads, three dispatchers, no shared view of capacity.
Fifty-three words saved and the second version says something the first one could not, because the second version proves I read the job posting. That is the trade every cut in this letter makes: abstract enthusiasm out, verifiable detail in.
The paragraph I deleted entirely — the resume recap — is the one almost every draft contains. If the sentence would still be true after the reader looks at your resume, the resume can carry it.
Two habits that keep letters short without effort
Write the middle first. Openings attract padding because they are the hardest part to start, so people warm up on the page and then keep the warm-up. Start with the achievement paragraph, where you actually have something to say, and write the opening last in one sentence.
Then count the thing before you send it. Not by eye — paste it into a word counter and look at the number. A letter that feels tight and measures 520 words is a letter you have read eight times, which is not the same as a letter a stranger can read once.
For the first draft itself, the cover letter generator writes to a sensible length from the job posting, which at least gives you something in range to edit rather than a blank page you will over-fill.
One page, three paragraphs, then stop
Set the target before you start — pick your row from the table, write the middle, add an opening sentence that names a specific thing from the posting, and close in two lines.
Paste the posting and your two or three strongest facts into our free AI Cover Letter Generator to get a draft that already fits on one page, then cut it by another 15 percent, because you always can.
FAQ
Is a half-page cover letter too short?
Usually, yes — a 150-word letter reads as though you had nothing specific to say about this particular job. The exception is an internal application or a role where you already know the hiring manager, where three tight sentences are genuinely better than a formal page. For a cold application, get to at least 250 words or make the case that the letter is worth sending at all.
Does the cover letter length change for UK, Canadian or Australian applications?
Not meaningfully. One page is the convention in all four markets, and the differences are in vocabulary — "CV" rather than resume in the UK and Australia, and a slightly more formal register in UK applications. The word count you are aiming for is the same.
Should I include my address block if I'm sending it as an email body?
No. Dropping the traditional letterhead saves about 40 words and looks correct in an email client. Keep the formal block only when the letter is a separate PDF attachment, and even then trim it to your name, city, email and phone.