Choosing a test by how long it runs
The typing test above runs for one minute on common lowercase words, the plainest reading of your speed there is. From here, the tests form a ladder from 15 seconds to 10 minutes, and each rung answers a different question. For a quick typing test between other things, the 15- and 30-second runs show your burst speed while your attention is fresh. A short typing test is easy to repeat, but one slip moves its result a long way.
Three and five minutes show whether your pace holds once the easy start wears off, which is closer to how you type at work. Ten minutes is a stamina test, where posture, breathing and concentration matter as much as your fingers. If a job or a course asks for a speed, find out which length they mean and practice at that length.
Choosing a test by what you type
Length is only half the choice; the text matters just as much. The prose tests use full sentences with capitals and punctuation. The test without punctuation lowercases the same sentences and strips the marks out, so it isolates letter speed, and taking the two back to back shows what punctuation costs you.
If your work involves figures, the number test drills digit groups on the top row, the letters-and-numbers test mixes words with codes like order and reference numbers, and the symbols test works the brackets, quotes and other punctuation keys. The keystrokes-per-hour test uses form-style records such as names, dates and amounts, and reports your speed in keystrokes per hour rather than words.
Two short tests are checks rather than speed measures. The alphabet test times a to z in seconds and shows how well your fingers know every letter. The quick brown fox test runs through pangrams, sentences that contain every letter, so each finger gets a turn.
How to get a fair reading
Warm up before you measure. A minute or two of easy typing loosens your hands, and a cold first attempt tends to undersell you. Sit with your forearms roughly level with the keyboard and your wrists floating rather than resting on the desk edge.
Take more than one run. A single result swings with the text you happened to get and with one good or bad moment, so take three and trust the middle one more than the best. Choose same text to rerun an identical passage when you want a direct comparison, and new text when you want a fresh one.
Compare like with like. A 15-second burst and a 10-minute run measure different things, and so do a words test and a symbols test. Only set results side by side when they come from the same test at the same length, ideally on the same keyboard. Your best result for each test is kept in this browser, so the comparison is waiting when you come back.
What the numbers mean
Whenever you check your WPM here, the test counts a word as five characters, so long words and short words are weighed fairly and results from different texts line up. Gross WPM is characters divided by five, divided by minutes. Net WPM then subtracts the errors you left uncorrected, which is why it is the figure to quote.
Accuracy is the share of all your keystrokes that were correct, including the ones you later fixed. Consistency shows how even your per-second speed was, with 100 meaning perfectly steady, and the speed graph after each run shows where you surged and where you stalled.
What counts as a good typing speed
A useful reference is Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes, a paper Dhakal, Feit, Kristensson and Oulasvirta presented at CHI 2018. They analyzed 168,960 volunteers who each transcribed 15 English sentences online, counting a word as any five characters, as we do. The mean came out at 51.56 WPM and the standard deviation at 20.2.
The spread is as telling as the average. The paper's fast group, the quickest tenth of the sample, typed above roughly 78 WPM; the slowest tenth typed below roughly 26; and the fastest people in the data reached 120 WPM or more. The average uncorrected error rate was 1.167 percent, and the authors found that faster typists generally made fewer mistakes.
Bear in mind that these were self-selected volunteers typing short sentences, not a cross-section of everyone. For your own purposes, a good speed is the one your work needs, typed accurately, and a steady climb on the same test means more than any single number.
Questions
- How do I check my WPM?
- Start typing the words above; the timer begins with your first key and runs for one minute. When it ends you get your net WPM, gross WPM, accuracy and consistency, with a graph of your speed second by second. For a steadier figure, take two or three runs and look at the typical one.
- What is a good typing speed?
- In a 2018 study of nearly 169,000 volunteers by Dhakal and colleagues, the average was about 52 WPM, and the quickest tenth typed above about 78. Beyond those reference points, a good speed is one that meets your needs at high accuracy, so compare yourself with your own earlier results on the same test.
- Is this typing test free?
- Yes. There is no sign-up and no account to create. Your results stay in your own browser, and the best result for each test is remembered on this device, so you can come back later and try to beat it. Clearing your browser data removes that history.
- Why does my typing speed change from test to test?
- Each run gives you different text, and some passages simply contain easier words than others. Your own state varies too: warm-up, tiredness and attention all move the number. Take several runs of the same test, use same text when you want an exact comparison, and judge your progress by the typical result.
- Does using backspace lower my score?
- Fixing a mistake keeps it out of your net WPM, because only uncorrected errors are subtracted. It still costs you in two ways: the time spent going back slows your speed, and the wrong keystroke still counts against your accuracy. Correcting is usually worth it, but avoiding the slip in the first place is better.