Terms of service documents on 13 major platforms average 5,010 words in 2026, according to a preprint analysis by Swinburne University of Technology researchers Yong-Bin Kang and Anthony McCosker. That figure spans a wide range, from Mastodon’s 2,088 words to Reddit’s 7,503, and the spread only widens once other industries enter the picture. Word count sets the ceiling on how long a document takes to read, and by every measured account, almost nobody reads that far.
How long is the average terms of service document in 2026?
The average runs to 5,010 words across the 13 platforms Kang and McCosker measured for their March 2026 preprint: BlueSky, Instagram, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Meta, Pinterest, Reddit, Spotify, TikTok, Tumblr, WhatsApp, X, and YouTube. This is a preprint and has not yet completed peer review, so treat the exact figures as a strong current snapshot rather than a finalized number, though the methodology and per-platform word counts are fully disclosed.
| Platform | Word count | Reading time at 238 wpm |
|---|---|---|
| 7,503 | 31.5 min | |
| TikTok | 7,497 | 31.5 min |
| Spotify | 6,110 | 25.7 min |
| Tumblr | 5,934 | 24.9 min |
| Meta | 5,443 | 22.9 min |
| Average (13 platforms) | 5,010 | 21.0 min |
| Mastodon | 2,088 | 8.8 min |
Figure 1: The six longest terms of service documents in the 2026 platform sample. Source: Kang and McCosker, Swinburne University of Technology preprint, March 2026.
Length by itself does not predict readability. Reddit and TikTok sit almost tied at the top of the sample despite serving very different products, while Mastodon’s federated, community-run model keeps its terms under a third of that length. The number that matters most for a business writing its own terms is the middle of the pack, not the extreme.
Which industries have the longest terms and conditions?
Dating platforms carry the longest terms and conditions of any industry measured, averaging 7,569 words and an estimated 58 minutes to read, according to Reboot Digital Marketing Agency’s analysis of 56 websites across 7 industries (published 2021, updated September 2023). Home and car insurance sites sit at the other end, averaging 1,682 words and 13 minutes.
The full spread across industries tracks how much personal and financial detail a sector typically collects:
Figure 2: Average terms and conditions word count by industry, 56 sites across 7 categories. Source: Reboot Digital Marketing Agency, 2021, updated 2023.
Reboot’s study also flagged the outliers inside each category. Grindr’s terms ran to 14,462 words, the longest single document in the dataset at roughly 1 hour 51 minutes to read, while insurer Aviva’s terms measured just 1,136 words, about 9 minutes. Our own 2026 look at who actually reads terms and conditions covers what happens once a document that long reaches a real visitor: almost nobody finishes it, regardless of industry.
Industry sets the baseline for length, but the businesses within each category still vary by a factor of 10 or more.
Has terms of service length changed since 2020?
Terms of service length among major platforms appears to have gotten shorter, not longer, over the past six years, though the comparison carries a real caveat: the two studies did not measure an identical set of companies. Visual Capitalist’s 2020 analysis of 14 popular apps and services, inspired by designer Dima Yarovinsky’s “I Agree” project, found an average of 6,867 words at the time, using a 240 words-per-minute reading assumption. The 2026 preprint’s 13-platform average of 5,010 words sits noticeably lower.
Individual platforms tracked across both snapshots tell a mixed story rather than a uniform trend. TikTok’s terms measured 7,459 words in the 2020 dataset and 7,497 in 2026, essentially flat. Spotify fell from 8,600 words to 6,110. X, measured as Twitter in 2020 at 5,633 words, dropped further to 4,348 by 2026. LinkedIn and Meta (Facebook in 2020) both grew modestly over the same period.
Figure 3: Published terms of service length studies, 2020 through 2026. Sources: Visual Capitalist, Reboot Digital Marketing Agency, Kang and McCosker preprint.
The direction is encouraging for anyone hoping legal documents are trending toward plain, shorter language, but four studies over six years using different samples is not enough to call it a settled pattern yet.
How long does it take to read the average terms of service page?
At a 238 words-per-minute adult silent reading speed, the same rate used in the 2026 platform study, the 5,010-word average takes about 21 minutes to read start to finish. That is squarely in the middle of a wide range: Mastodon’s 2,088 words clears in under 9 minutes, while Reddit’s 7,503 words takes more than half an hour.
Figure 4: Share of the 13 platforms falling into each reading-time bracket, calculated from disclosed word counts at 238 wpm. Source: Kang and McCosker preprint, March 2026.
The theoretical reading time and the actual reading time are two very different numbers. In a peer-reviewed 2020 study by Obar and Oeldorf-Hirsch (n=543), published in Information, Communication & Society, participants spent an average of just 51 seconds on a terms of service page sized to take 15 to 17 minutes to read at normal adult reading speed. Our deeper look at how many people accept terms without reading walks through that study and four others measuring the same gap. Whether a document takes 9 minutes or 31, the evidence says almost none of that time actually gets spent.
Word count predicts reading time almost perfectly. It does not predict whether anyone reads.
Which platforms keep terms of service short enough to actually get read?
Using 4,000 words as a practical readability line, one that keeps a document under 17 minutes at 238 words per minute, just 30.8% of the 13 platforms in the 2026 sample stay under it. BlueSky, Instagram, Mastodon, and YouTube qualify; the other 9, including Reddit, TikTok, Spotify, and Meta, run past it.
Figure 5: A practical length-and-structure test against the 2026 platform average. Source: synthesized from the studies cited throughout this article.
Word count is not destiny. A business publishing its own terms controls both the total length and where the important clauses sit within it, which matters more than hitting an arbitrary target. You can generate a terms and conditions document that states cancellation, liability, and dispute terms in plain language near the top, rather than burying them past the point where the data above says most readers, and most of the 13 platforms studied, have already stopped reading.
A document under 5,000 words with its key terms up front clears both tests in the flowchart above; a longer document can still pass if it front-loads what matters.
The Bottom Line
The single most useful number here is not any one platform’s word count, it is the 5,010-word average across major platforms in 2026, because it sets a realistic bar for what “normal” looks like. Industries built around personal detail, like dating and social networking, run well above that bar; industries built around a single transaction, like insurance, run well below it. Reading time scales directly with word count, from 9 minutes to over 30, but actual reading behavior barely moves regardless of length. For a business writing its own terms, the practical takeaway is to treat 5,000 words as a ceiling worth respecting and to put the clauses a reader actually needs, cancellation, liability, and dispute resolution, in the first few paragraphs rather than the last.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the average terms of service document in 2026? Terms of service documents across 13 major platforms average 5,010 words in 2026, ranging from Mastodon’s 2,088 words to Reddit’s 7,503, according to a preprint analysis by Swinburne University of Technology researchers Yong-Bin Kang and Anthony McCosker.
Which industries have the longest terms and conditions? Dating platforms average 7,569 words, the longest of any industry measured, versus 1,682 words for home and car insurance, based on Reboot Digital Marketing Agency’s analysis of 56 websites across 7 industries.
How long does it take to read the average terms of service page? About 21 minutes at a 238-word-per-minute adult reading speed for the 2026 platform average of 5,010 words. Actual reading behavior falls far short of that: peer-reviewed research found test subjects spent just 51 seconds on a comparable document (Obar and Oeldorf-Hirsch, 2020, n=543).
Has terms of service length changed since 2020? It appears to have gotten shorter among major platforms, though the two studies did not measure identical companies. Visual Capitalist’s 2020 analysis of 14 popular apps found an average of 6,867 words, versus the 5,010-word average in the 2026 preprint covering 13 platforms.
Sources and References
- Kang, Y-B. and McCosker, A. (2026). “I Have Read and Agreed to the Terms: A New Look at the Readability of Social Media Terms of Service and Privacy Policies.” arXiv preprint 2603.04701, Swinburne University of Technology. 13 platforms analyzed, word count and readability metrics disclosed. Preprint, not yet peer-reviewed.
- Reboot Digital Marketing Agency. (2021, updated 2023). “The Industries with the Longest Terms and Conditions.” 56 websites analyzed across 7 industries.
- Visual Capitalist. (2020). “Visualizing the Length of the Fine Print, for 14 Popular Apps.” Data inspired by Dima Yarovinsky’s “I Agree” project.
- Obar, J. A. and Oeldorf-Hirsch, A. (2020). “The Biggest Lie on the Internet: Ignoring the Privacy Policies and Terms of Service Policies of Social Networking Services.” Information, Communication & Society. Peer-reviewed, n=543.
Note: All figures verified as of August 2026. Word count studies use different samples and methodologies, so headline figures are refreshed at least twice a year as newer data becomes available.
