What a good typing speed really is.

The average typist manages about 52 words a minute on a computer and 36 on a phone. What the numbers mean, and how to measure your own in your browser.

By Suraj Kumar7 November 20264 min read

A typing test with its words, some typed in place, and the result beside it: 62 words a minute and 97% of keys right

Ask how fast a good typist types and you will hear numbers from 40 to 120. Most of them come from typing sites that only see the people who visit them. The best numbers we have come from two large studies at Aalto University, which measured how real people type. Here is what they found, and how to see where you stand.

The average is about 52 words a minute.

In 2018 Vivek Dhakal and his colleagues published what 168,000 volunteers typed on computers: 136 million keystrokes. The average was 51.56 words a minute, with most people between about 32 and 72. Only about one in a hundred typed more than 100.

On phones the numbers are lower. A study of 37,000 volunteers in 2019 found an average of 36.2 words a minute on a phone's on-screen keyboard.

So 40 words a minute is a little under average, 50 to 60 is a typical office typist, 70 or more is fast, and 100 or more is rare.

Speed means little without accuracy.

A typing test counts the words you type right. Mistakes you leave behind count for nothing, and mistakes you go back and fix cost you the time it took. The volunteers in the 2018 study left about one character in a hundred wrong.

KeepSimp's test shows the share of keys you pressed right beside your speed, and lists the words you got wrong. A steady 50 with 98% right is better for real work than a fast 70 full of corrections.

Find your words per minute

Measure yours on the text you really type.

Common words are easy, so a test of them gives a high number. Real writing has capitals, punctuation and longer words. The Typing test offers both: common words, or passages from classic books with their punctuation.

Take the test for a minute to see where you are, or for five minutes for a number that one good or bad moment does not move much. Compare yourself only with yourself, on the same kind of text and the same keyboard.

Nothing you type leaves your device.

The test runs in your browser. What you type is counted there and is never sent anywhere, and there are no adverts to interrupt a test.

A little less theory. A little more doing.

Try it on your own terms, with a free browser tool.

Try the tool