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Resume Length Checker
Paste your resume and get the word count, an estimate of its page length, and a plain verdict for your years of experience: keep it, tighten it, or cut it. Everything is counted in your browser.
- Word count, bullet count and estimated pages
- A verdict for your experience level, with what to cut first
- Nothing is uploaded or saved
Check your resume length
Paste your resume text. It is counted in your browser and never sent anywhere.
The page-length rule the checker applies
The usual guidance, by years of experience:
- Under 10 years of experience: one page. A student, a recent graduate or someone early in a career has one page of relevant material. A second page is padding.
- 10 or more years: one to two pages. Go to a second page only when it is mostly full of relevant, recent work. Older roles can shrink to a line each.
- Academic CV or federal resume: as long as the record needs. These formats list publications, grants or detailed duties and are read differently.
Page counts follow the layout, not the word count. The same 600 words can fill one page in a compact template and run onto a second in a spacious one, so use the word count to judge how much you have written and a preview to judge how it lays out. The guide to resume length covers the reasoning and the exceptions in more depth.
What to cut first when it is too long
- Bullets that do not help with this job. Relevance beats completeness.
- Roles older than 10 to 15 years: keep the title, company and dates, drop the bullets.
- Long bullets. Aim for one or two lines; split a three-line bullet into its result and its method, and keep the result.
- An objective statement, “references available on request”, and a full street address.
- Duties that every person in the role does. Keep the results that only you can claim.
Then check the layout, not just the count: the font, size and margin checker shows how much room a margin or spacing change really buys, and the bullet point improver tightens a bullet without losing its result.
Frequently asked questions
- What length does this checker recommend?
- One page for under about ten years of experience, up to two pages for more. A second page is justified only when it is mostly full of relevant, recent work: a page-and-a-quarter resume looks unfinished, so either tighten it to one page or fill the second with substance.
- How many words is a one-page resume?
- Roughly 350 to 600 words at a normal font size and margins. Short bullets and generous spacing push you toward the low end, dense text toward the high end. Treat it as a rule of thumb: the layout decides, so check the real page count in a preview.
- Is a two-page resume bad?
- No. For ten or more years of experience, a senior role, or a field with many credentials, two pages is normal. It becomes a problem when the second page has a handful of lines on it, or when the first page does not already contain your strongest, most relevant material.
- Do recruiters really only read the first page?
- Recruiters scan quickly and decide early, which is why the top third of page one matters most. They do read on when the top interests them. Put the most relevant experience first, and make each bullet worth reading so a second page, if you have one, gets a look.
- Does the page limit apply to a CV?
- Not in the same way. Academic and research CVs, and US federal resumes, are routinely longer than two pages because they list publications, grants, teaching or detailed duties. If you are applying outside academia or the public sector, use a one- or two-page resume instead.
- Does the checker store my resume?
- No. The text is counted in your browser and is never uploaded or saved.
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Fit your resume on the right number of pages
The builder shows the real page break as you type, so you see exactly where page one ends.
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