How long should a business letter be?

A business letter should usually fit on one page, at about 200 to 350 words of rendered text including the letterhead, address and sign off. Across the 46 finished letters measured on this site, the median is 275 words and 34 fit on a single page. Letters that give good news run shortest; formal HR steps and legal notices run to two pages because the law or fairness requires every point in writing.

What was measured

The set is every letter in the document example library on this site on 21 October 2026: 46 letters for fictional Australian businesses and employees, from a confirmation of employment to an offer letter. A script rendered each one as A4 pages and counted the words on the page, letterhead, address block and signature lines included, then grouped the letters by what they do.

Good news is short

The 13 letters that give an employee good or routine news are the shortest group, a median of 219 words, and all fit on one page. A promotion letter needs the new role, the start date, the pay and a line of thanks; adding more makes it read like a contract. The shortest letter in the set, a letter confirming employment for someone deciding whether to rent a property to the employee, is 186 words.

References and resignations are close behind at a median of 252. The resignation letter is 191 words: the decision, the last day and a thank you.

Letters to customers and suppliers

The 15 letters to customers, suppliers and partners run a median of 312 words, and 13 of them fit on one page: a price increase, an apology, a welcome, a thank you, a complaint to a supplier, an invitation. They are longer than employee news because they usually explain a reason (why the price is going up) or ask for something (a meeting, sponsorship, a donation). The two that run longer are letters of intent, which set out the shape of a deal before the contract.

Formal steps run to two pages

The 14 letters in the last two groups are where length rises. The legal and formal notices have a median of 400 words, and the formal HR steps 486. A final warning letter has to list the warnings already given, what has happened since, the meeting and what the employee said, the decision, the standard from now on and the consequence. The redundancy letter has to show why the position is redundant, the consultation that came first, that redeployment was looked at, the notice and how the redundancy pay was worked out. Fair Work’s guidance on notice and final pay sets out the entitlements those letters must get right.

The longest letter is the offer letter, 4 pages and 967 words, because it is the first written record of the job’s terms. It sits closer to a short contract than to a letter.

How long yours should be

1. Good news, confirmations, thanks: about 200 words, one page.
2. Customers and suppliers: 250 to 350 words, one page, with the reason and the ask.
3. A notice with legal weight: as long as the required content, often a second page with short headings.
4. An offer of employment: as long as the terms, with the conditions set out clearly.
5. Every letter: the point in the first paragraph, plain words, and what happens next at the end, as the Australian Government Style Manual’s plain language guidance advises.

How to write a resignation letter, how to write a termination letter and how to write a letter of demand go through three of these letters line by line.

In the product

The document generator treats a letter as a composed, one page document when its content allows, adds a letterhead only when the document speaks for a sender, and never adds a cover to a letter. The AI chat can then shorten or reword the text. The one page document page shows the layout, and the guide to creating a document with AI covers the brief.