How long should a tooltip be?

Keep tooltips under about fifty characters so they read at a glance. A tooltip is a hint, not documentation. If you need more than one short phrase, the interface itself probably needs a clearer label or an inline help link instead.

Should tooltips end with a period?

No. Tooltips are fragments, not sentences, so they read better without ending punctuation. Use punctuation only when a tooltip contains two short clauses, and even then prefer a dash over a full stop.

Are tooltips a good substitute for labels?

No. Tooltips appear only on hover or focus and are invisible on touch devices, so they must never carry information a user needs to complete a task. Use them to clarify icons or add reassurance, not to replace visible labels.

Why do icon-only buttons need tooltips?

Icons are ambiguous — a gear could mean settings or build options. A tooltip naming the action removes that ambiguity and is also read by some assistive tech via the accessible name. Always pair an icon-only control with a clear label.

What goes in a form field tooltip?

Field tooltips work best for reassurance or format hints, such as we will never share your email or use the format DD-MM-YYYY. Avoid restating the label, and keep the hint to a single short phrase the user can read while typing.

Tooltip Copy Generator

Tooltips are tiny but they do real work: they disambiguate icons, reassure users about form fields, and confirm where a navigation item leads. Good tooltip copy is short, specific, and free of punctuation clutter. This generator returns three length options for each of the four common element types.

How it works

You pick the element type — action button, icon-only control, form field, or navigation item — and enter a subject (a verb, an icon name, a field label, or a destination). The tool then produces three tooltip variants ordered from shortest to most descriptive:

1. minimal   — just the label or verb
2. actionful — adds a verb like "Open" or "Go to"
3. context   — adds a short reassurance or detail

For buttons it capitalises the verb; for fields it lowercases the label so it reads naturally inside a sentence like “We’ll never share your email address”. This mirrors how experienced UX writers tier tooltip copy to fit different amounts of space.

Tips and notes

Tooltips vanish on touch screens and only appear on hover or keyboard focus, so never put essential instructions in them. For an icon-only settings button, the generator offers “Settings”, “Open settings”, and “Settings — manage your preferences”; choose the shortest one that still removes ambiguity.

Keep the final copy under roughly fifty characters, drop trailing periods, and make sure the tooltip matches the control’s accessible name so screen-reader and sighted users get the same meaning.