How the test works
Choose 15, 30 or 60 seconds and press Start. Three lines of common English words appear, with the first word highlighted, and a text field below them. Type the highlighted word and press Space or Enter: the word is submitted and the next one is highlighted. The clock starts with your first letter, not with the Start button, so you have time to put your hands on the keys.
Letters you type correctly turn white, a wrong letter shows in yellow with an underline, and the field gets a yellow border while what you typed no longer matches the word. You can delete letters and fix the word you are on, but a submitted word stays as it was. When the time is up the test stops in the middle of whatever you were typing and shows your words per minute, accuracy and the number of correct and wrong words.
The words are drawn at random from about 200 of the most common English words, so every run is different but none of them asks you to read something unusual. The field asks the keyboard to turn off autocorrect, spell check and word suggestions, and pasting is blocked. If you switch tabs, the clock pauses until you come back. Esc or the × button leaves without a result.
What the result means
Words per minute here is the net speed: only correctly typed words count, at five characters per word with the space included, which is the standard most typing tests use. That is why a long word is worth more than a short one, and why a run full of mistakes scores low even if your fingers were fast. Characters per minute is the same count without the division by five.
Accuracy is the share of your key strokes that were right. Every letter you add is checked against the letter of the word at that place, and every space is right when the word before it was. Deleting a letter is not a stroke, so fixing a mistake does not count against you twice, but the mistake itself stays counted.
- Under 30 words per minute. You are probably looking at the keys. Learning to touch type is the biggest gain available.
- 30 to 50. The usual range for people who type every day without training.
- 50 to 80. Fast. Most office work never needs more.
- Over 80 with 95 % accuracy. You type faster than most professionals.
A 15-second run favours a quick start, a 60-second run measures the speed you can keep up. For a number you can compare over weeks, use 60 seconds.
How to get a reliable result
Use the keyboard you normally type on and sit as you would for work, with your wrists free and the screen at eye level. Do one run as a warm-up: the first run is usually the slowest. Keep your eyes on the words, not on your hands, and read one word ahead while you type the current one. If you make a mistake in a word, fix it before pressing Space; a wrong word costs all of its characters. Accuracy first, speed second: people who slow down to 97 % accuracy usually end up with a higher net score than those who hammer at 85 %.
When the device is in the way
If a letter appears twice when you pressed it once, or does not appear at all, the keyboard may be the problem, not your fingers. The keyboard test shows every key press and release, so a worn switch that chatters or a key that does not register is easy to find. A wireless keyboard with a weak battery can drop or delay key presses, especially far from its receiver. On a phone, a slow or heavily themed keyboard app can lag behind your thumbs; switching to the system keyboard often helps. If the screen stutters while you type, close heavy tabs and video calls, which can make the browser late to draw what you typed.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good typing speed?
Around 40 words per minute is a common speed for adults who type every day, and 50 to 80 is fast. A large study by Aalto University with over 160,000 volunteers measured an average of about 52 words per minute on a computer. Above 100 words per minute is the range of people who practise typing as a skill. Accuracy matters as much: 95 % or more means your speed is real, not paid for with mistakes.
How are the words per minute calculated?
As in most typing tests, a word is five characters, the space included. The test adds up the characters of every correctly typed word and its space, plus the correct beginning of the word you were on when the time ran out, divides by five and by the minutes. A wrong word counts for nothing, so typing fast and wrong gives a low result.
Why is my result lower on the phone?
A phone keyboard is a different instrument: two thumbs, no keys to feel and a small screen. The same Aalto team measured an average of about 36 words per minute on phones, well below the computer average. The test also asks the keyboard to turn off autocorrect and word suggestions in the field, so the phone does not type for you. Compare results on the same device.
Can I go back and fix a word?
Only the word you are typing. You can delete letters in it as long as you have not pressed Space. Once a word is submitted it stays as it was, right or wrong, and the next one starts in an empty field. This keeps the result honest and is how most timed typing tests work.
Is my typing saved or sent anywhere?
No. The words and what you type stay in this browser tab and disappear when you leave. The only thing kept is your best result for each duration, in your browser's local storage on this device. Pasting text into the field is blocked, so a record cannot be pasted.