Paste a text that runs long: an email, a bio, a post, an answer on a form with a word limit. Give a target, such as half the length or under 100 words, and list anything that must survive. Hemmingway cuts it and hands back the shorter text, in your wording wherever your wording already worked.
Nothing new goes in. It removes and tightens, and it does not swap your points for different ones. What it cannot know is which detail matters most to your reader, so tell it. It is for cutting down your own writing, not for reworking someone else's to pass as yours.
What gets cut, and what to check
- Give it a number. "Shorter" gets a light trim. "Two sentences" or "under 100 words" gets real cuts.
- Name what must stay. The date, the room, the one line you are proud of.
- Expect the warm-up to go first. Openings that announce the message, points made twice, hedges like "I just wanted to" and background the reader already has are the usual cuts.
An example
Asked to cut this to two sentences, keeping the new time and the room:
I just wanted to send a quick note to let everyone know that, following on from our discussion last week, the training session that was originally planned for Wednesday has now been moved, and it will instead take place on Thursday at 2pm in Room 4. If you are unable to attend at the new time, it would be really helpful if you could let me know by Tuesday.
a shorter text along these lines is what to expect:
The training session has moved from Wednesday to Thursday at 2pm in Room 4. If you can't make it, please tell me by Tuesday.
The reader now reaches the new time in the first line, and both days are still there.
If a text is long because the sentences are tangled, not because there is too much in it, try the paragraph rewriter or the sentence rewriter first.
Common questions
Is the text shortener free?
Yes. Hemmingway has a free trial with no card needed, and this tool opens it with your answers filled in. You sign up once, and the shorter version is written in the chat.
Can it hit an exact word or character count?
It aims for the target you give, but it does not count perfectly and may land a little over or under. For a form or a post with a strict limit, count the words or characters yourself, and if it is over, ask in the chat for ten words fewer.
Will it cut something important?
It can. Use the box for what must stay, then compare the short version with yours before you send it.
Will it sound like AI?
It is built not to. Hemmingway-1, the model behind it, came first on sounding like a person in our own blind test, Human-Likeness. It still helps to read it aloud and change any word you would not use.
Is shortening the same as summarising?
No. A shortened text is still your message, to the same reader, with less in it. A summary is a report on a text for someone who has not read it. For that, use the AI summarizer.