How long should a cover letter be?

150 to 250 words. Half a page. Four short paragraphs. Never more than one page, and one page is already generous. If you want the number and nothing else, that's it.

Why that number

A recruiter working through a stack of applications gives each one a few seconds before deciding whether to read properly. Your letter isn't competing against other letters for quality — it's competing for the decision to keep reading at all. A dense page loses that decision before a word is judged.

There's a second reason, and it's the more important one: length is usually a symptom. Letters run long when the writer hasn't decided what the argument is, so they include everything and hope something lands. Cutting to 250 words forces the decision. The constraint isn't a style rule, it's a thinking tool.

What to cut, in order

The biography paragraph."I graduated in 2016 and since then have worked across…" — that's your CV, and they already have it. Nothing in a chronological summary earns its space.

Anything that could be sent to another company. Read each sentence and ask whether it would survive swapping the company name. If it would, it's filler. This usually kills the opening line and most of the closing paragraph.

Achievements that don't serve your main point. The hardest cut, because they're often your best material. But a letter is one argument — evidence that doesn't support that argument dilutes it, however impressive it is. Save it for the interview.

Logistics. Notice period, salary expectations, availability, relocation. None of it belongs here; all of it belongs in a later conversation or the application form.

Throat-clearing."I am writing to apply for the position of…" They know. "I would like to take this opportunity to…" Just say the thing.

What stays

A specific observation about their business. One sentence connecting it to you. Two to four sentences of real evidence — with exact numbers — that proves the connection. A short, concrete plan. A close that offers something rather than requesting consideration. That's the leitmotiv structure, and it fits comfortably inside 250 words.

The test

Delete your first paragraph and read what's left. If the letter is now better — which it often is — you found your real opening. Repeat until deleting hurts.

One caveat worth knowing: a few markets and public-sector processes do expect a longer, more formal letter, and some application forms specify a word count. Instructions in the posting always beat the general rule. Absent instructions, keep it short.

Job Badger writes to this length by default — one argument, grounded in your real experience, no filler. See what it produces.