Short answer: 250 words is the official minimum for Task 2. There's no official maximum — but going far past it usually costs you time and coherence, not marks for length itself. Aim to comfortably clear 250 rather than stop exactly on it.
⏱ Test your typing speed — see if you can hit 250 words in 40 minutes →IELTS instructions for Task 2 state you should write "at least 250 words." That isn't a soft suggestion — examiners apply a penalty under the Task Response criterion when an answer falls short, on the assumption that an under-length essay hasn't had room to fully develop its argument. A technically well-argued 230-word essay still gets marked down for this, no matter how good the English inside it is.
On the computer-delivered test this stops being a guessing game: a live word counter sits on screen the whole time, updating as you type, so you always know exactly where you stand — no counting by hand like on the paper test.
No official cap exists. You won't lose marks purely for writing 320 or 350 words. What you do risk at that length is what tends to happen alongside it: repetition, weaker examples stretched thin to fill space, and — critically, on a 40-minute clock — running out of time before you've checked your work. Longer isn't rewarded. It's neutral at best and risky at worst.
The computer-delivered counter follows a simple rule: it counts space-separated groups. A hyphenated word like "well-known" counts as one word, not two. A contraction like "don't" also counts as one word. A number written as digits — "250" — counts as one word too, even though it represents three characters worth of a much longer number spelled out. This matters because it means you can't inflate your count by spelling numbers out, and you shouldn't worry that hyphenating a compound adjective is quietly costing you words.
| Word count | What it means |
|---|---|
| Under 250 | Penalised under Task Response, regardless of quality |
| Exactly around 250 | Technically meets the minimum, but almost no buffer |
| Comfortably over 250 | Safe — clears the minimum with room to fully develop your argument |
| Well over 300 | No direct penalty, but repetition and rushed checking become real risks |
Aiming for precisely 250 words gives you zero buffer. If you slightly miscount, or the on-screen counter treats a hyphenated word or contraction differently than you expected, you could land under the line without realising it. A small cushion above 250 protects you from that — and it costs you well under a minute of extra typing.
The real skill isn't counting words as you go — it's building enough content that you naturally clear the minimum: a clear position in your introduction, two body paragraphs each with one main idea and one developed example, and a short conclusion. Practising with real high-band model essays under timed conditions trains you to feel what 250 words takes to write, so you stop watching the counter and start trusting your pacing.
A useful habit while practising: after finishing a timed essay, check the counter once, note how far over or under 250 you landed, and adjust your next attempt accordingly — trim a sentence if you were far over, add a supporting detail if you were close to the line. Do this a handful of times and your sense of "what 250 words feels like" becomes reliable enough that you rarely need to check mid-essay at all.
Type all 156 Cambridge Band 6–8 model essays with live word count →Task 1 requires a 150-word minimum, not 250, in a shorter 20-minute window — the same logic applies: no official maximum, but a comfortable working target sits somewhat above the floor rather than exactly on it.
Yes. Falling under 250 words is penalised under the Task Response criterion, even if every sentence is well-written.
No direct penalty for length beyond the minimum — the real risk is running out of time or diluting your argument with repetition.
Comfortably over 250 rather than stopping exactly on it — long enough to develop your argument, short enough to finish inside 40 minutes with time to check.
Yes, a live on-screen counter updates as you type, so you never need to count by hand.
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