What Is the Average Typing Speed?
The average adult types at around 40 words per minute (WPM) with about 92% accuracy. Regular computer users who touch-type sit between 50 and 70 WPM; professional typists and transcriptionists work at 70–90 WPM, and competitive typists exceed 120. A "word" in every standard test is five characters including spaces, so 40 WPM is 200 characters a minute. Speed without accuracy is worthless — most tests, including the one here, count only correctly typed words — so the fastest route to a higher score is usually fewer mistakes, not faster fingers.
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How typing speed is measured
Words per minute is standardised: five keystrokes count as one word, whatever the actual words were, so "the quick brown fox" and "extraordinarily" carry the same weight per character. Gross WPM counts everything you typed; net WPM subtracts a penalty for errors (usually one word per uncorrected mistake) and is the figure that matters for jobs. The test on this site runs for sixty seconds on ordinary English prose and reports words typed correctly per minute, together with accuracy. Sixty seconds is long enough to be reliable and short enough that fatigue doesn't distort the result; longer professional tests (five or ten minutes) return slightly lower speeds.
What is a good typing speed?
Surveys of office workers put the mean at 38–42 WPM, and that figure has barely moved in decades, because most people were never taught to touch-type and plateau at whatever speed hunting and pecking allows. The people who did learn — often at school or in a first job that required it — average 55–70 WPM. Job adverts that ask for typing speed typically want 45 WPM for general administration, 60–70 WPM for medical or legal secretarial work, and 75+ for transcription. Court reporters using stenotype machines reach 225 WPM, but that is a different keyboard entirely.
Touch-typing on a phone is a separate skill: studies of two-thumb typing find an average of about 36 WPM, with the fastest users around 80, so a phone score should not be compared with a keyboard score.
Accuracy matters more than speed
Every uncorrected error typically costs a whole word from your net score, and every corrected error costs the time to notice it, backspace and retype — usually two to three seconds, or the equivalent of two words. A typist at 60 WPM with 90% accuracy therefore nets less than one at 50 WPM with 99% accuracy. Speed comes from rhythm, and rhythm comes from never having to look down or go back. If your accuracy is under 95%, slowing down until it is above 97% will raise your WPM within a few weeks.
How to type faster
- Learn the home row and stay on it. Every finger has a set of keys; looking at the keyboard is the habit that caps most people at 40 WPM.
- Practise little and often. Ten minutes a day beats an hour on Sunday; typing is a motor skill and consolidates during sleep.
- Type real prose, not random words. Common letter pairs ("th", "ing", "tion") become single motions with practice, which is where the big gains are.
- Use a keyboard you can feel. Key travel and clear actuation reduce errors; laptop keyboards with very shallow keys are typically 5–10% slower for the same person.
- Posture. Wrists level, elbows at ninety degrees, screen at eye height. Fatigue shows up as errors before it shows up as slowness.
Score bands on the typing speed test
These are the bands the typing speed test on this site uses for its result screen.
| Score | Band |
|---|---|
| 90+ words per minute | Exceptional |
| 65–89 words per minute | Fast |
| 40–64 words per minute | Average |
| 25–39 words per minute | Developing |
| 0–24 words per minute | Warming Up |
How players on this site compare
Every completed typing speed test adds an anonymous result to this site's histogram. This page shows the median and distribution once 20 results have been recorded (2 so far); until then the bands above are the guide. The live figures are always on the benchmarks page and at /api/data/norms.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average typing speed?
About 40 words per minute for adults generally, and 50–70 WPM for people who touch-type. One word is five characters including spaces.
Is 60 WPM good?
Yes — 60 WPM is faster than most office workers and meets the requirement for most administrative and secretarial roles. 80+ WPM is professional-transcription territory.
How is typing speed calculated?
Characters typed divided by five gives gross words; divide by the minutes elapsed for gross WPM. Net WPM subtracts roughly one word per uncorrected error. This site counts correctly typed words per minute.
How long does it take to learn touch typing?
Most learners reach 40 WPM without looking within four to six weeks of daily ten-minute practice, and 60 WPM within three to six months.
Related guides
- Average Reaction Time: What Is a Good Score?
- Average Reading Speed: What Is a Good WPM?
- What Is a Good Processing Speed Score?
- Benchmarks: how scores on this site are distributed
- All free tests
Site figures are anonymous results recorded on getmytestscore.co.uk and describe this site's players only; they are not clinical norms and should not be used for diagnosis. Research figures are cited from peer-reviewed sources and summarised in plain English.