Cover letter length checker
Paste your letter and see immediately whether it's the length recruiters actually read — plus the two structural things that decide whether it gets skimmed or skipped.
Short answer: aim for 150–250 words, about half a page and four short paragraphs. Never more than one page.
Checked in your browser as you type. Nothing is uploaded, stored or sent anywhere.
Why 150–250
A cover letter is skimmed before it is read, usually in well under a minute and often on a phone. That budget is what sets the range: enough room to make one argument and prove it, little enough that a skim reaches the end. Below 150 words there is rarely space for evidence; past 400 the reader stops before your best point.
The full reasoning, and what to cut first when you are over, is in how long should a cover letter be.
Over the limit?
Job Badger writes a tailored letter in the right range automatically, grounded only in your real experience — free, no sign-up to try. Paste a job posting →
Right length, wrong words?
Length is only half of whether a letter gets read. The cover letter cliché checker looks at the other half: whether it is built from phrases every recruiter has already read this week.
Common questions
- Does the word count include the address and greeting?
- No. Count the body only. Addresses, the date, the greeting and the sign-off are formatting rather than argument, and recruiters skim past them. If your body is 200 words the letter is the right length even if the page looks longer.
- Is 150 words too short for a cover letter?
- It is at the short end but not wrong, provided those words carry evidence. A tight 150 words that proves one claim beats 350 that restate your CV. It becomes too short when there is no longer room to say what you did and what happened as a result.
- Should a cover letter ever be longer than one page?
- Almost never for a normal application. The main exceptions are academic and some public-sector processes, which often specify their own length, and any posting that states a word count. Instructions in the posting always beat the general rule.
- Does length differ by country?
- The 150 to 250 range holds across most English-speaking markets. Germany and Austria are the real exception, where a full-page Anschreiben as part of a complete application is normal rather than excessive.
Built by Nenad Franjic. The guidance here is tested against real applications and their outcomes — including the rejections — rather than written from a content brief.