How long should a cover letter be in Switzerland?

One page. Three or four paragraphs: the role you are applying for, what you bring, why this company, a closing line with your availability. Two pages rarely get read to the end.

Can I use ChatGPT for a cover letter?

Yes, and it phrases things well. Two things stay your job: it knows neither the advert nor your CV unless you paste both in — and it will happily add experience you do not have. Every figure and every role in the finished text has to come from your CV.

Is a cover letter still expected in Switzerland?

For most adverts, yes, though it is asked for less often than it used to be. Its absence is noticed where it is expected; a short, specific letter costs you ten minutes and answers the question of why this role in particular.

Comparisons

Best cover letter generator for Switzerland

In short

For the raw text, ChatGPT is the most flexible tool there is: free at the basic tier, writes in any language, and can be sharpened sentence by sentence. What it does not have is your material — the advert, your CV and the Swiss conventions have to be pasted in every single time, and it will cheerfully invent experience you never had. SwissJobs.app writes the letter from the advert and from your own CV as already entered, in the language of the interface, next to the CV it has to match: free with a free account, Premium CHF 15 a month or CHF 95 a year. Novorésumé states that its free plan includes no cover letter at all.

The tools compared here

Click an image for the full-size view. What each tool actually is stands beside it.

1. SwissJobs.appOur tool
The letter is written from the specific advert and from the CV you have already entered — the facts come out of your CV rather than out of a chat window’s imagination.
Why choose this one
Price
First letter without an account; then Premium CHF 15 a month or CHF 95 a year.
Swiss
Swiss letter convention: place and date, subject line, one page, addressed to a person.
Export
PDF and Word in the same layout as the CV from the same editor.
Reach
Four languages and no template library — anyone wanting choice finds it at the big vendors.
What only this one does · best for
- The letter comes out of your CV and the specific advert, not an empty form.
- The same type treatment as the CV — the application reads as one piece.
Best for: Needing a fresh letter per vacancy without starting from nothing.
checked 2026-09-10
SwissJobs.app →
2. ChatGPT and similar assistants
Unbeatable at rewriting. Change the tone, cut it down, redraft one paragraph ten times — no form-driven generator does that as well.
Why choose this one
Price
Usable without an account, free tier; paid plans for more.
Swiss
Knows no Swiss convention unless you state it; anything about the employer needs checking.
Export
The result is text in a chat — layout, PDF and Word are on you.
Reach
Any language, any tone, as many variants as you like in one pass.
What only this one does · best for
- "Get answers tailored to you" — an open assistant, not an application product.
- Its strength is rewriting: tone, length and language change with one sentence.
Best for: Writing it yourself and wanting a quick sparring partner.
checked 2026-09-10
ChatGPT and similar assistants →
3. Zety and Novoresume
The letter picks up the CV’s layout and typeface, so the two documents visibly belong together.
Why choose this one
Price
Free downloads as TXT only. PDF or Word: 14 days for 2.70 EUR, then 23.70 EUR every 4 weeks, or 71.40 EUR a year.
Swiss
Anglophone cover-letter convention, not the Swiss structure.
Export
"Make a matching cover letter to get the job you want" — layout matched to the Zety resume.
Reach
A large collection of templates and examples alongside the builder.
What only this one does · best for
- "Build a Cover Letter Online" — section by section, with suggested phrasing.
- Sits right next to the Resume Builder, CV Builder and the ATS Resume Checker.
Best for: English applications, especially with a CV from the same house.
checked 2026-09-10
Zety and Novoresume →
4. Canva
Where the design is part of the application — agency, design, marketing — its freedom beats any application tool.
Why choose this one
Price
Free plan; premium elements require Canva Pro.
Swiss
Design templates rather than letter convention — structure and salutation stay yours.
Export
PDF Standard and PDF Print; DOCX only for Canva Docs.
Reach
Cover-letter templates sit in the same library as every other design.
What only this one does · best for
- The letter is a design matching the CV in the same style (their cover-letter page answers us 403; the positioning is read from the resume page).
Best for: Caring about a consistent, designed look.
checked 2026-09-04
Canva →

What they do better

ChatGPT and similar assistants: unbeatable at rewriting. Change the tone, cut it down, redraft one paragraph ten times — no form-driven generator does that as well.
Zety and Novoresume: the letter picks up the CV’s layout and typeface, so the two documents visibly belong together.
Canva: where the design is part of the application — agency, design, marketing — its freedom beats any application tool.

Where we differ

The letter is written from the specific advert and from the CV you have already entered — the facts come out of your CV rather than out of a chat window’s imagination.
It is written in the language of the interface: German, French, Italian or English, without you having to ask.
Swiss letter convention: one page, a named recipient rather than "To whom it may concern", a reference to the advert, place and date.
It sits beside the CV in the same tool — same details, same version, no two documents drifting apart.
The letter’s key points carry into the interview cheatsheet: what you claim in the letter, you have evidenced and to hand in the interview — one argument, not two versions of yourself.

Why SwissJobs.app

Not one more tool, but the whole application in one place — and re-tailored to each advert instead of written once.

Optimised per advert, in minutes. The CV check reads your CV against that specific posting, shows the missing terms and the fit score — and applies the fixes into the editor with one click. For the next role you repeat it in minutes, instead of sending one CV everywhere.
Everything in one account. Job search, CV, motivation letter, CV check, interview prep, interview practice and the RAV record all work off the same advert and the same CV. No copying between four tools, no four subscriptions.
Live AI interview practice. A spoken mock interview with the panel you actually expect — HR, a domain expert, whoever you name — rated per answer, with a pass-probability at the end.
The RAV job-search record, filled from your tracker. What you already log fills the official form, instead of reconstructing it by hand at month end. It is a Swiss form that international trackers do not model.
An editor that looks like a Swiss CV. Three typefaces, nine accent colours, two layouts — and underneath, the format that actually gets looked at here: work permit, language levels A1–C2, room for Arbeitszeugnisse.
Our own job index alongside it. Over 21,000 Swiss roles in four languages — the advert you are optimising for lives in the same product.

What our index says about the Swiss market

Computed live from our own job index, not quoted from a study. Shares only — as of today.

Language the advert is written in

Deutsch: 60%
English: 23%
Français: 13%
Italiano: 3%

Of adverts that state a language requirement, the share asking for

Deutsch: 70%
English: 43%
Français: 21%
Italiano: 3%

19% posted in the last 7 days · Largest markets: Zürich 18% · Bern 10% · Genève 5% · Basel 5%

Use another tool if

You like writing yourself and only want a sparring partner for phrasing — or you need a letter that stands out visually.

Use SwissJobs.app if

You are applying for several roles and want one letter per advert that matches your CV and invents nothing that is not in it.

Prices and free tiers

checked on the vendors’ own pages on 17 September 2026

SwissJobs.app: Build 1 CV, tailor it with 5 AI edits, preview it — and download it once: all free, with no account at all. No email, no card. It is the second CV and the second download that ask for an account and the 7-day trial, then CHF 15 a month or CHF 95 a year.
Novorésumé: The free "Basic" plan allows one version, a maximum of one page and no cover letter. The pricing page states it itself: "downloading a document with Premium features is not possible in the Basic account", use a Premium element and the free download stops. Premium, as shown to a visitor in Switzerland: 25.90 CHF for a month, 43.90 CHF for a quarter, 149 CHF for a year, described on the page as "Pay once. No recurring billing." (Source)
Zety: The free "Basic Package" downloads in TXT format only, the plan table says "TXT format only" where the paid plans say "PDF, Word, and TXT". A PDF or Word file therefore means the Pro Package: a 14-day trial for 2.70 EUR which then, in the page's words, "auto-renews at 23,70 € billed every 4 weeks", or the Annual Package at 71.40 EUR paid at once, renewing each year. Those are the euro prices shown to a visitor in Switzerland; in US dollars the same page lists $1.95, $25.95 and $71.40. (Source)
Canva: Canva Free costs 0 CHF. Canva Pro is shown to a visitor in Switzerland at 128 CHF a year for one person, with a free trial. Canva's help page reserves export options such as the CMYK colour profile, a file-size limit and transparent PNGs for Pro. What we could not verify is whether a given CV template downloads free: that depends on whether it contains Premium elements, and the help page covering those refuses our requests with a 403. (Source)

About the numbers

About the numbers: every figure about another vendor comes from that vendor’s own page, fetched on 2026-09-17, and is kept as a quote. Where a vendor did not answer, that is what this page says instead of a number — prices copied out of comparison articles go stale and are often wrong on the day they are published. Our own figures come from the code rather than from marketing copy: CHF 15 a month, CHF 95 a year, 7 days free, and a free tier that costs nothing at all — not even an email address, until you want to keep the document.

Write a cover letter for the advert

FAQ

How long should a cover letter be in Switzerland?: One page. Three or four paragraphs: the role you are applying for, what you bring, why this company, a closing line with your availability. Two pages rarely get read to the end.
Can I use ChatGPT for a cover letter?: Yes, and it phrases things well. Two things stay your job: it knows neither the advert nor your CV unless you paste both in — and it will happily add experience you do not have. Every figure and every role in the finished text has to come from your CV.
Is a cover letter still expected in Switzerland?: For most adverts, yes, though it is asked for less often than it used to be. Its absence is noticed where it is expected; a short, specific letter costs you ten minutes and answers the question of why this role in particular.