One page at most - and ideally well short of it. The effective range is 250 to 400 words in three or four short paragraphs. That number comes from how cover letters are actually read: a recruiter triaging a stack of applications gives each letter seconds on the first pass, and a letter that fits on half a page gets read whole while a full page gets skimmed or skipped. Length is the first signal you send about whether you respect the reader's time.
Three paragraphs cover everything a cover letter has to do. Open with the role and the single strongest reason you fit it - not "I am writing to express my interest", which spends a line saying nothing. Spend the middle paragraph on one concrete achievement with a number attached, told in enough detail to be believed. Close with why this company specifically, and a plain request for the conversation. A fourth paragraph is affordable when the role genuinely needs a second proof point; a fifth almost never is.
Every hiring survey lands in the same place: recruiters prefer short letters, and the fear that a brief letter reads as low effort is backwards. Thin content reads as low effort - generic praise for the company, restated resume bullets, adjectives about your work ethic. A 250-word letter that names the team's actual problem and shows you have solved it elsewhere is the strongest possible signal, and it leaves the recruiter time to read your resume, which is where the decision gets made anyway. Watch out for the application-form variant too: online text boxes often cap at 2,000-4,000 characters, which a one-page letter pasted in can silently exceed.
First drafts run long because you write toward the point and leave the approach in. Cut the opening pleasantries, cut everything your resume already says, cut the second and third examples, and keep the numbers. If the draft is still over, WordLimit's cover letter shortener trims it to an exact word target - 300 words, or a character cap for an application form - while keeping the achievements and the role keywords that get you shortlisted. Pair it with a tightened resume and the whole application reads as someone who gets to the point.
One page maximum, ideally 250-400 words in three or four paragraphs.
No. If it names the role, proves one point of fit, and closes cleanly, 200 words reads as confidence.
Three to five sentences each. If a paragraph passes six, it is holding two ideas - split it or cut one.
Related reading: How Long Should a Resume Be? and the cover letter length reference.
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