How much text per slide? A words-per-slide guide with rewrites

How many words fit on one slide?

Here is a starting budget by the role of the slide. These are our working numbers, derived below, and not a TikTok rule.

As of November 2026 we found no words-per-slide figure in the TikTok sources we used, such as the Creator Academy photo-posting article (opens in a new tab). Advice elsewhere varies widely, and any single number is a rule of thumb. The reasoning below lets you set your own.

How do you work out a word budget from reading time?

The Creator Academy says viewers swipe through photo posts at their own pace, so there is no fixed time per slide. You still have to plan for one. The formula:

words = (seconds on the slide − orientation time) × reading speed

Our assumptions, none of them measured:

• Orientation time: 0.5 seconds. The viewer first recognizes the layout and finds where the text starts.
• Reading speed: 3 to 4 words per second. That is a deliberately slow range for reading large text on a phone while scrolling.
• Seconds on the slide: a choice you make per slide role.

The budgets in the first table sit between the two columns and lean toward the faster one. If you write for an audience that reads slowly, such as non-native speakers, or if your slides carry jargon, use the slower column.

How big should the text be for that many words?

Space matters less than reading time, but the type size decides how many lines your words need. We use a text column 780 px wide (the width of the relaxed box on the safe zone page) and assume an average bold sans-serif character is 0.55 times the font size wide. An average word with its space is six characters. Line height is 1.2 times the font size.

For a floor, Apple's Human Interface Guidelines (opens in a new tab) give iOS a default text size of 17 pt and a minimum of 11 pt. If a 1080 px slide fills an iPhone width of roughly 390 to 430 pt, that scale is about 2.5 to 2.8 times. The result is an estimate: 17 pt is about 43 to 48 px, and 11 pt about 28 to 31 px, on the slide. The guidelines are for app interfaces, not images, so we use 44 px only as a lower limit for any body text.

Read the table with a limit in mind: keep the text block under about 400 px tall, roughly a fifth of a 1920 px slide. A 10-word cover then fits at 80 px (384 px). A 14-word content slide fits at 64 px (about 307 px). A 22-word reference slide needs 52 px (about 312 px). Twenty words at 96 px would need over 1,000 px, which is why large headlines force short text.

Your font may be narrower or wider than 0.55, so measure one real slide and adjust.

What does a rewrite look like?

Each rewrite below cuts a draft to its slide role. Word counts are in the columns.

The same cut works on every slide: delete the lead-in, replace narration with a command, put numbers in digits, and move the reasoning somewhere else. The shortened content slides in a finished post might look like this:

Where do the reasons go? Into the caption, which can run to 4,000 characters (opens in a new tab) on TikTok. The caption formulas page shows how to structure it.

When can a slide hold more words?

Save-worthy slides are the exception. A recipe card, a packing list or a cheat sheet can hold the reference budget or a little more, because people stop on them and may take a screenshot. Keep three rules even then: a clear heading, a list instead of a paragraph and no line longer than about five words.

Two practical limits apply to all slides:

• Text baked into an image is normally not read by screen readers unless the alt text repeats it. As of May 2025 TikTok said creators can add alt text to photo posts (opens in a new tab) during upload or after publishing, and it did not give a character limit. Put the key text of each slide into the alt text or the caption.
• The text still has to sit clear of the interface that covers part of the screen. A word budget is useless if the last line falls under the caption.

How do you check a slide before export?

• Say the slide aloud at normal speed. If it takes longer than its planned seconds, cut.
• View it at about the size of a thumbnail. The main line should still be readable.
• Count the words and compare them with the role's budget in the first table.
• Check that the smallest text on the slide is at least 44 px on a 1080 px canvas.
• Look for the lead-in ("In this slide...", "Remember that...") and delete it.
• Confirm that every slide makes one point.

If an AI writes your slides, put the word cap in the brief ("no more than 12 words per slide, no lead-ins"). Fyslide works with the AI you already use (Claude Code CLI, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, Ollama, or an Anthropic or OpenAI API key), and its slideshow editor lets you cut text by hand and ask the AI to improve a selection. For the editing pass that makes AI text sound less generic, see making AI slide text sound human. The type sizes and margins also belong to the wider slideshow design guide.