What is a good typing speed?
The average adult types 38–40 WPM; 60–70 WPM is comfortably above average and enough for most professional work, while 90+ WPM with high accuracy puts you in the top tier. Accuracy beats raw speed — a fast typist who constantly backspaces is slower than a precise one.
Example: 60 WPM at 98% accuracy beats 90 WPM at 90% accuracy in real output.
How typing speed is scored
The industry standard counts every five typed characters as one "word". Gross WPM is that word count per elapsed minute, ignoring mistakes. Net WPM subtracts a penalty of one word per error for each minute of the test, which is why accuracy pays: 60 WPM with ten slips in a one-minute run nets 50. Accuracy here compares your text to the passage character by character, so a missed capital or punctuation mark counts exactly like a wrong letter.
Getting faster without guessing
Most plateaus come from hunting for keys with the eyes. Anchor your fingers on the home row, force your gaze to stay on the passage, and accept a temporary speed drop while the finger paths relearn — accuracy first, then pace follows. Short daily sessions beat rare marathons, and retesting on this page with a fresh passage gives you a fair, comparable number to watch climb toward the 60–80 WPM range where professional typists live.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do different tests give me different WPM?
Tests differ in passage difficulty, whether backspacing is allowed, and how errors are scored. This one counts every character including spaces and capitals, penalizes errors in the net figure, and stops when you have typed the full passage — so expect small differences from five-minute tests that average over longer text.
What is a good typing speed?
Around 40 WPM is the untrained adult average, 60–80 WPM covers most professional needs comfortably, and competitive typists exceed 120. Accuracy above 95% matters more than raw speed for real work, because correcting mistakes eats the gains.
Why does the timer start on the first keystroke?
So the clock measures typing rather than reading or settling into position. Reading the passage first is free; the run begins the moment your hands start moving.