How Long Should a Cover Letter Be? Ideal Length in 2025
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Wondering how long should a cover letter be? Before discussing the ideal cover letter length, remember: it's not the only thing that matters. You must know how to put the space you have to good use. Let's find out how many words should a cover letter be and what should be included to amaze your future employer.
This guide will show you:
- Ideal cover letter length example.
- The answer to “How many words should a cover letter be?”
- How long is a cover letter that’s well-written.
- How to keep the length of a cover letter under control.
Want to write your cover letter fast? Use our cover letter builder. Choose from 20+ professional cover letter templates that match your resume. See actionable examples and get expert tips along the way.
Sample cover letter for a resume—See more cover letter examples and create your cover letter here.
You may want to explore other subjects related to cover letter writing:
How Long Should a Cover Letter Be?
A good cover letter contains 3 to 4 concise paragraphs and no more than 400 words in total. For entry-level candidates, 200 words is the sweet spot. Ideally, your cover letter contents should take up slightly more than half a page.
Here are the numbers to benchmark your cover letter length against:
Ideal Cover Letter Length | |
Page count | Approx. 0.5 |
Paragraph count | 3–4 |
Word count | 200–400 |
As you can see, a perfect cover letter should be short. Think about the main purpose of a cover letter: it introduces you to the recruiter, and it’s supposed to get them interested in you as a candidate. As such, it has to be brief and to the point—it must strike the right balance between the length and the message.
Recruiters receive dozens of job applications for each position. If, instead of the information they’re looking for, they come across a story of your life, they’ll skip it without batting an eyelash.
Ideal Cover Letter Length—Example
The example above shows a cover letter outline. Its length is perfect for a PDF file that you can send as an email attachment.
But you may want to write your cover letter in the body of the email you’ll be sending to the hiring manager. If that’s the case, just skip the cover letter heading and start with Dear [Hiring Manager’s Name]. Plus, make it as compact as possible—get rid of all the fluff and do your best to reduce the message to the absolute minimum.
Use experience bullet points to your advantage. They not only make your strongest selling points prominent but also help you save a lot of space.
And, just like with a paper version, make sure you sell yourself well in your cover letter: explain why you chose to pursue this specific role and company and why you’re the best candidate for the job.
We evaluated 11 million resumes created using our builder and found that these are the top 10 professions that often include a cover letter:
- Business Operation Specialists
- Top Executives
- Advertising, Marketing, and PR Managers
- Clerks
- Engineers
- Retail & Sales Representatives
- Healthcare Practitioners
- Financial Specialists
- Teachers and Instructors
- Counselors, social workers, and social service specialists
Tips For Finding The Ideal Cover Letter Length
So, the real question is, how do you make your cover letter the right length? Check out these simple steps for achieving the perfect length of your cover letter:
Focus On The Value You Bring
Identify what’s relevant and ignore all the rest. How? Treat the job offer as a guide and only touch upon the things it mentions. Say what you can do to help the company in the areas specified by the recruiter in the ad. Keep in mind that 83% of recruiters claim that cover letters are an important factor in their making hiring decisions.
Don’t Turn Your Cover Letter Into a Biography
Cover letters introduce you to the recruiter. So make sure it’s an introduction, not the story of your entire life. If you have no idea how to go about this, read our guide on how to write a cover letter.
Get A Second Opinion
Have someone read your cover letter and ask them for a critique. The thing is that it’s very hard to see redundancies and inconsistencies in your own piece of writing. Give it to someone who’ll look at it with fresh eyes.
Observe The Ideal Cover Letter Length Limits
If the right cover letter length is about 400 words, do your best to stay below this limit. Also, double-check if the employer hasn’t specified their own limits anywhere. If they did, stick to these.
Don’t Reveal Everything in Your Cover Letter
Imposing a limit on the length of your cover letter will make you less likely to give everything away too soon. In other words, do show your best side on the cover letter, but keep some aces up your sleeve for the interview.
Get Your Cover Letter Formatting Right
Regarding cover letter formatting, white space is your friend, so don't fill up the entire page with densely packed paragraphs. Set one-inch margins all around, left-align the contents, choose an elegant cover letter font, and don't go below 11pt in terms of font size. But don't overdo it. Adding double spaces between lines of text is not such a great idea—stick to single-line spacing or 1.15 at the maximum.
Pro Tip: A well-written resume and cover letter make a fabulous duo, but keep your cover unique and only complementary to your resume. Your recruiter should not experience a déjà vu.
Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
Key Takeaway
So again, how long does a cover letter have to be? The ideal cover letter length is:
- Word count: not more than 400 words
- Format: 3 to 4 concise paragraphs
- Page Length: Slightly longer than half a page
But it's the things that make it the right length that land the interview. Fluff should never add to the cover letter length. The ideal length of a cover letter should be decided by how long it takes to prove three things: Why this job, why this company, and why you.
Want to know more about how long should cover letters be? What frustrates you about the cover letter length? Give us a shout-out in the comments! We love to help!
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This article has been reviewed by our editorial team to make sure it follows Zety's editorial guidelines. We’re committed to sharing our expertise and giving you trustworthy career advice tailored to your needs. High-quality content is what brings over 40 million readers to our site every year. But we don't stop there. Our team conducts original research to understand the job market better, and we pride ourselves on being quoted by top universities and prime media outlets from around the world.
Sources
- Glassdoor, "50 HR and recruiting stats"
- Arcadia University, "Is a cover letter necessary in 2022? Do I need a cover letter?"
Frequently Asked Questions about How Long Should a Cover Letter Be
Can a cover letter be 2 pages?
A cover letter should never be 2 pages. A 2-page cover letter violates the cover letter definition. Namely, a cover letter is a brief description of why you fit the job. In rare cases, a resume can be two pages if you've got enough experience.
Is my cover letter too long?
A cover letter is too long if it's a full page or longer. Three-page or two-page cover letters are a waste of paper. A cover letter should be about three paragraphs of facts explaining why you're perfect for the position.
Should a cover letter be one page?
Does a cover letter have to be one page? Actually, a cover letter should always be less than one page. Short cover letters get more eye-time with managers. A cover letter that's less than a page sends an instant signal to the manager that your letter won't run over to page 2.
How many words should a cover letter be?
How long are cover letters? Cover letter word count should be between 200 and 400 words (300 is the sweet spot.) Why? Because that's the right length to fill up slightly more than half a page with 12-point font. But that's not how you'll get the interview.
How long should an electronic cover letter be?
An electronic cover letter should be the length of cover letters on paper. Namely, three paragraphs, 250–300 words, and less than a full page. The difference is, write a great subject line and leave the address section off the top.
Should a cover letter be double-spaced?
A cover letter should not be double-spaced. Always single space a cover letter. That includes the address. The only place to double-space a cover letter is in between the paragraphs. That is: insert a blank line after each paragraph ends.
