Typing speed is measured in words per minute (WPM), and most people have a rough idea of their own number without knowing what it means. Is 45 WPM slow? Is 70 good? The honest answer depends on what you compare it with, so this guide starts with how the number is calculated, then gives the benchmarks from the two largest public typing studies, then covers what fast typists actually do differently.
How words per minute is measured
A "word" in a typing test is not a real word. By convention it is any five characters, spaces and punctuation included (Wikipedia). Typing "the cat sat" is 11 characters, so 2.2 words. This keeps results comparable: a text full of long words does not unfairly lower your score.
- Gross WPM counts every character you typed, right or wrong, divided by five, per minute.
- Net WPM subtracts a penalty for uncorrected errors, so it is always equal to or lower than gross WPM.
- Accuracy is the share of characters you typed correctly. Most tests show it next to the speed.
Two tests can give you different numbers for the same typing because they use different texts and different formulas. Compare yourself on the same test over time, not across tests.
What the average typist scores
The biggest public dataset comes from researchers at Aalto University and the University of Cambridge, who analysed 136 million keystrokes from 168,000 volunteers typing on physical keyboards. The average participant typed 52 words per minute, and the fastest reached about 120 (University of Cambridge).
A follow-up study by the same group measured 37,000 volunteers typing on their phones. They averaged 36.2 words per minute and left about 2.3% of their errors uncorrected (Palin et al., MobileHCI 2019). So a phone score and a keyboard score are not the same scale: 40 WPM is above average on a phone and below average on a keyboard.
| Keyboard WPM | What it means |
|---|---|
| Under 30 | Still looking at the keys or typing with a few fingers. The biggest gains are here. |
| 30–50 | Typical for someone who types every day but never learned touch typing. |
| 50–70 | Around and above the average in the 168,000-person study. Comfortable for any office work. |
| 70–90 | Fast. Few people reach this without deliberate practice. |
| 90+ | Very fast. The best participants in the study were around 120. |
The bands above are a reading guide, not a standard: only the 52 WPM average and the 120 WPM top end come from the study itself.
What fast typists do differently
The Cambridge and Aalto researchers found two things that set the fastest typists apart. They made fewer mistakes, and they used "rollover": pressing the next key before releasing the previous one, which they did for 40 to 70 percent of their keystrokes (University of Cambridge). Speed, in other words, comes from not having to go back, and from overlapping keystrokes rather than hitting each key harder.
Six habits that raise your WPM
- Accuracy first. Every error costs you the wrong keystroke, the correction and the retype. Slow down until you are above 95% accuracy, then let speed come back on its own.
- Stop looking at the keyboard. Glancing down breaks your reading of the text. Use the bumps on F and J to find home position by touch.
- Read ahead. Your eyes should be a word or two ahead of your fingers, so the next word is ready before you finish the current one.
- Keep a steady rhythm. An even pace with no bursts and pauses is faster over a full paragraph than rushing the easy words.
- Practise in short sessions. Five to ten minutes a day beats an hour once a week, because the goal is building automatic finger movements.
- Track one number on one test. Pick a test and a text length and record your result, so you are measuring progress rather than test differences.
Practising with a typing race game
Racing a clock makes practice less of a chore. TypeSprint, our typing race game, gives you a paragraph, starts the timer on your first keystroke and shows your speed and accuracy live. It measures gross WPM with the standard five-character word, so a mistake does not lower the WPM figure itself; instead it stays marked in red and pulls down your accuracy, and there is no backspace, which makes it a good drill for the "accuracy first" habit. Your result earns a grade from S (80 WPM and up) through A (60+), B (40+) and C (25+) to D, and your best speed is saved in your browser. The practice texts are in English.
A simple plan: one run to warm up, then three runs where the only goal is 100% accuracy, then one run at full speed. Write down the last result each day.