Reference guide
Word Count Guidelines by Document Type
"How many words should this be?" is one of the most common questions in writing, and the honest answer is almost always "it depends on where it's going." This page collects the most commonly cited length guidelines for the formats people check most often. Use the word counter to check your own draft against any of them.
Academic writing
Academic length requirements are usually set by the assignment itself, but these are the typical ranges when no specific number is given:
| Document | Typical length | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| High school essay | 300–1,000 words | Varies widely by grade level and assignment. |
| College application essay (Common App) | Up to 650 words | A hard cap: the form cuts off at 650 words. |
| Undergraduate essay | 1,500–3,000 words | Depends heavily on the course and topic complexity. |
| Master's thesis chapter | 5,000–10,000 words | Varies by department and institution. |
| Abstract (academic paper) | 150–300 words | Many journals enforce a strict maximum. |
Going under a stated minimum is penalized far more consistently than going slightly over a maximum. If you're unsure which way to round, aim for the top third of the given range rather than the bottom.
Job applications
Recruiters skim, so shorter and more focused almost always outperforms longer and more thorough:
| Document | Typical length | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Resume (per page) | 400–800 words | One page for most early/mid-career roles, two pages maximum for senior roles. |
| Resume summary/objective | 50–75 words | 3–4 sentences, placed at the top of the page. |
| Cover letter | 250–400 words | Should fit on a single page with normal margins and font size. |
| LinkedIn "About" section | Up to 2,600 characters | LinkedIn's own platform limit for that field. |
| Thank-you email after an interview | 75–150 words | Short and specific outperforms long and generic. |
Content and SEO writing
There's no single "correct" length for online content. Search engines rank based on how well a page answers the query, not its word count, but these are commonly cited working ranges:
| Document | Typical length | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Meta description | Up to ~155–160 characters | Google truncates longer descriptions in search results. |
| Title tag | Up to ~60 characters | Longer titles get cut off with an ellipsis in search results. |
| Blog post (general) | 600–1,200 words | Enough room to cover a topic without padding. |
| Blog post (competitive/SEO-focused topic) | 1,500–2,500+ words | Comprehensiveness helps for highly competitive search terms, but only if every added word is genuinely useful. |
| Product description (e-commerce) | 150–300 words | Enough to answer common buyer questions, short enough to scan. |
Social media
Platform character limits are hard technical caps, not guidelines. Go one character over and the post either gets rejected or truncated:
| Platform | Limit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| X (Twitter) post | 280 characters | Includes spaces, punctuation, and links (links count as a fixed length regardless of the actual URL). |
| Instagram caption | 2,200 characters maximum | Only the first ~125 characters show before "more". Write your hook first. |
| Facebook post (before "See more") | ~477 characters | The post itself can be far longer; this is just where the visible preview truncates. |
| YouTube video title | 100 characters maximum | Titles over ~60–70 characters get cut off in search results and suggested videos. |
| YouTube video description | Up to 5,000 characters | Only the first 1–2 lines show before "Show more". |
| TikTok caption | 2,200 characters maximum | Similar truncation behavior to Instagram. |
Speeches and scripts
Timing a speech or script by word count is far more reliable than guessing, since speaking pace is fairly consistent for a given delivery style. As a rule of thumb at a natural ~130 words-per-minute pace (see how this is calculated):
- 1-minute video or speech: roughly 130 words
- 2-minute video or speech: roughly 260 words
- 5-minute speech: roughly 650 words
- 10-minute presentation: roughly 1,300 words
- 30-minute podcast episode script: roughly 3,900 words (if fully scripted rather than conversational)
Business and email writing
Business writing has looser rules than academic or platform limits, but the same principle of respecting the reader's time still applies:
| Document | Typical length | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Professional email | 50–150 words | Longer emails see lower response rates; put the ask in the first two sentences. |
| Press release | 300–500 words | Excludes the boilerplate "About" paragraph at the end. |
| Executive summary | 1 page (~400–600 words) | Should stand alone without requiring the full report. |
| Meeting agenda item | 1–3 sentences | Enough to state the topic and the decision needed. |
How to use these numbers
Treat every range on this page as a starting point, not a rule. The actual requirement always wins when one is explicitly stated (an assignment sheet, a job posting, a platform's own character counter). When no explicit number is given, aim for the middle of the range rather than an extreme: a resume at exactly one page reads as more polished than one that's clearly padded to fill space, and a blog post that answers the question completely in 900 words is more useful than one stretched to 1,500 with repetition.
Paste your draft into the word counter to check it against any of the ranges above. The count updates as you edit, so you can see immediately how close you are to a target as you trim or expand. Nothing you paste is uploaded. See our privacy policy for the full detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
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