How the typing test works
Pick a mode, then just start typing: the clock starts with your first key. Type each word and press Space to move on. Wrong letters turn red; press Backspace to fix them (you can step back into the previous word if it has a mistake). Press Esc for a fresh test at any time, or Tab then Enter to restart.
- Timed test gives you a stream of random words for 15 seconds to 5 minutes. Common uses the 200 most frequent English words (the standard for speed tests), Top 1000 and Advanced are harder, and Real text strings together passages from the library. Tick Punctuation or Numbers to mix in capitals, commas, quotes and figures.
- Texts has you type one complete passage from a library of 463 texts in eight categories: quotes, excerpts from classic books, fables and folk tales, science and nature, history and places, everyday and work writing, numbers and data entry, and one-line code snippets. Texts you've already typed are skipped until you've seen the rest.
- Practice builds drills from a dictionary of 4,452 words: your own weakest keys, the words you got wrong, a single keyboard row, one hand, capitals, numbers or symbols.
Turn on Stop on errors to train accuracy: a wrong key is refused, so you can only move on by typing the right one. Show keyboard lights up the next key and names the finger that should press it, which helps if you're learning to touch type.
How WPM and accuracy are calculated
A "word" in typing tests is five characters, spaces included, so results compare fairly between texts with long and short words.
- WPM (net speed) counts the characters of words you typed correctly, plus the spaces after them, divided by five, per minute. A word with a mistake left in it doesn't count.
- Raw speed counts every character you typed, mistakes included, the same way. The gap between raw and net speed is what your mistakes cost you.
- Accuracy is the share of your keystrokes that were right the first time. Fixing a mistake doesn't undo it, so 100% means you never pressed a wrong key.
- Consistency shows how steady your speed was from second to second; 100% would be perfectly even.
- Characters shows the final text as correct / incorrect / extra (typed past the end of a word) / missed (skipped).
Many job typing tests use the older "net WPM" formula: gross speed minus one word per minute for each uncorrected error. Both approaches give nearly the same number when you fix your mistakes as you go.
What is a good typing speed?
| Speed | What it means |
|---|---|
| Under 25 WPM | Beginner, often looking at the keys or typing with two fingers. |
| 25–45 WPM | Developing. Enough for everyday messages and email. |
| 45–65 WPM | Average for adults who type regularly. |
| 65–85 WPM | Fast. Comfortable for office, writing and data-entry jobs. |
| 85–110 WPM | Very fast, the level of experienced professional typists. |
| Over 110 WPM | Elite. Few people reach this. |
In a 2018 study of 168,000 volunteers by researchers at Aalto University and the University of Cambridge (Dhakal et al., Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes), the average speed was about 52 WPM. Job adverts for administrative and data-entry roles often ask for 40 to 60 WPM with high accuracy, so it's worth practicing both.
How to type faster
- Accuracy first. Every mistake costs a Backspace and a retype. Slow down until you're above 95% accuracy, then let speed come on its own. The Stop on errors option makes this a habit.
- Learn the home row. Rest your index fingers on F and J (feel the bumps) and let each finger cover its own column. The home row, top row and bottom row drills in Practice use real words made from those keys.
- Don't look at the keyboard. It feels slower for a week or two, then overtakes hunt-and-peck for good.
- Practice little and often. Ten minutes a day beats an hour once a week. Mix short timed tests for speed with longer texts for stamina.
- Target your weak spots. After each test, the results show the keys and words you missed. Practice them with one click, and the weak-keys drill adapts as you improve.
Typing on a keyboard you're unsure about? Check that every key registers and none double-types with the keyboard tester. For a pure reflex challenge, try the reaction time test, and see how accurate your clicks are with the mouse test.
About the texts
The quotes and book excerpts come from works in the public domain, copied from the published text and cited with their source. The fables are retold in our own words, and the science, history, everyday, numbers and code passages were written for this site. All texts use plain keyboard characters: straight quotes and no special dashes, so everything can be typed on a standard US keyboard. Your results, weak keys and settings are saved only in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.