Getly
There is a persistent belief that digital product descriptions should be short, because nobody reads. We measured what sellers actually write. Across live Getly listings on 14 September 2026:
- Median: 1,158 characters — roughly 180 words, a healthy paragraph or three.
- 10th percentile: 262 characters — two sentences.
- 90th percentile: 2,478 characters — a full page.
So the typical listing is not short, and the spread is nearly ten to one between the terse tenth and the thorough tenth.
The floor is 150, and it is there for a reason
A Getly listing cannot be published with a description under 150 characters. That threshold was set from the catalogue, not from taste: descriptions below it were reliably a single line repeating the title.
Note where the 10th percentile sits — 262 characters, comfortably above the floor. Almost nobody writes to the minimum and stops. Given a requirement to write two sentences, sellers write four.
What the long descriptions are doing
Reading the 90th percentile, the extra length is almost never prose. It is structure: a list of what is included, a specification block, format and size, a licence statement, an FAQ.
That is the actual finding. Descriptions do not get longer because sellers become more eloquent. They get longer because sellers add the answers to questions they got tired of being asked. A 2,478-character description is usually a 400-character description plus every pre-purchase question that product has ever generated.
Which suggests a shortcut: rather than deciding how long to write, write the short version and then add the answer to each question a buyer asks you. The length takes care of itself and every added sentence has earned its place.
What it does not need to contain
Three things appear constantly in the long tail and do none of the work.
A restatement of the title. The buyer just read it. Starting the description with it wastes the position that matters most.
Adjectives without objects. "Premium quality", "beautifully crafted", "perfect for any project". These can be pasted under any product in the catalogue, which is a reliable test that they describe nothing.
Terms nobody set. A sentence about what buyers may do with the work is genuinely useful — but it belongs in the licence field, where it is structured, shown next to the buy button and readable by machines. Written into prose it is invisible to everything except a human who scrolls.
The one line that matters more
All of the above is about the long description, which is read by people who already clicked. The short description — one sentence — is what appears in category grids, search results and link previews, and it is read by everyone deciding whether to click at all.
535 listings have no short description. If you are going to spend five minutes on text today, spend it there rather than on the field you have already written 1,158 characters into.
