A cover letter should be about 150 to 300 words — three or four short paragraphs that fit on roughly half a page. That is long enough to make a specific case for why you fit this role and short enough that a busy hiring manager will actually read it. Anything past 400 words is working against you: it buries your strongest point, signals that you cannot edit, and tests the patience of someone who is skimming a stack of applications. The structure that fits in that space is simple — a hook that opens with something specific, a middle that connects your experience to their need, and a close that asks for the next step.
Why shorter almost always wins
The person reading your cover letter is not reading it the way you wrote it. You spent an hour on it; they are giving it somewhere between fifteen seconds and a minute, often on a phone, often as the eighth letter in a sitting. Length is the first thing they register — before a single word. A half-page letter says "this will be quick." A dense full page says "this is going to take effort," and effort is exactly what a skimming reader is trying to avoid.
There is a second, quieter signal. The ability to say something in 250 words instead of 500 is itself evidence of a skill every employer wants: knowing what matters and cutting the rest. A long cover letter does not demonstrate thoroughness. It demonstrates that you could not decide what your best point was, so you included all of them. Brevity is not just easier on the reader — it is a small audition you pass by being short.
The structure that fits in 300 words
You do not need to ration words once you stop padding. Three moves carry the whole letter:
- Hook (1 short paragraph). Open with something specific to this company or role — not "I am writing to apply for." A real observation, a genuine reason you are drawn to the work, or the single most relevant thing about you. This is the paragraph that decides whether the next two get read.
- Fit (1–2 short paragraphs). Connect your experience to their need with one concrete example, ideally with a result. Not your whole resume restated — one proof point that maps directly to what the role requires.
- Close (1 short paragraph). State your interest plainly and ask for the next step. Two sentences. No throat-clearing, no "thank you for your time and consideration" filler that adds words without adding anything.
The opener is where the words get wasted
Almost all cover-letter bloat lives in the first two sentences, where nervous writers warm up instead of starting. Compare a bloated opener with a tight one. The second version says more in a third of the words.
I am writing to express my strong interest in the Marketing Coordinator position that was recently posted on your company website, as I believe that my background and skill set make me an excellent candidate for this exciting opportunity.
Your campaign tying the rebrand to local makers is the most distinctive thing I have seen a brand your size do this year — and growing that kind of community-led marketing is exactly what I spent the last two years doing at Maple & Co.
41 words of filler replaced by 38 words that name the company, show research, and state a relevant track record.
Please allow me to take this opportunity to introduce myself and to explain why I feel that I would be a good fit for your organization and the role you have available at this time.
I cut our support response time from 14 hours to under 3 by rebuilding the ticket triage flow — the kind of operational fix your job posting calls out as the first priority.
Generic throat-clearing replaced by a concrete result tied directly to the posting.
How to actually hit the target
Write the letter first without watching the count, then cut. Drafting to length produces thin, careful prose; cutting to length produces tight prose. After your first draft, do three passes:
- Delete the warm-up. Find the first sentence that actually says something and make it your opening. The two sentences before it were you clearing your throat. Reader does not need them.
- Cut to one proof point. If you used two or three examples, keep the strongest and delete the rest. One specific, well-told result beats three half-told ones.
- Kill the filler phrases. Remove the stock phrases above and any sentence that would be just as true on a letter to any other company. If it is generic, it is taking up space your specific case needs.
Do that and you will land in the 150-to-300-word range without aiming for it — which is the right way to hit it. The number is not the goal. The goal is a letter that a busy person reads to the end and a length that proves you respect their time. Standard guidance from Indeed's career guide and most Harvard Business Review writing advice lands in the same place: short, specific, and ruthlessly edited beats long every time.
Common questions
- Can a cover letter be too short?
- Yes, but it is a rarer problem. Under about 100 words you usually have not made a real case — you have written a note, not a letter. The floor is roughly two short paragraphs: one that says why this role and one that gives a concrete reason you fit. If you can do that in 120 words, do it in 120 words.
- Should a cover letter ever be a full page?
- Rarely. A full single page is the absolute ceiling, and only for senior or executive roles where you genuinely have more to connect. For everything else, half a page reads as confident and considerate. A full page of dense text reads as someone who did not know what to cut.
- How many paragraphs should a cover letter have?
- Three or four. An opening that earns attention, one or two middle paragraphs that tie your experience to the role, and a short closing that states your interest and a clear next step. More than four paragraphs in 300 words means each one is too thin to matter.
- Does word count matter more than page count?
- Word count is the better target because formatting varies. Aim for 150 to 300 words and the page length takes care of itself. Counting pages tempts people to shrink the font and margins to fit more in, which produces a wall of text that no one reads.
Sources
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