What is a good typing speed? Average WPM, benchmarks and how to get faster
The short answer
On a computer keyboard, around 50 words per minute (WPM) is average, 60 to 70 is good, and 80 or more is fast. On a phone, most people type in the mid-30s.
Those numbers come from two of the largest typing studies ever run, with over 200,000 people between them. You can take our 60-second typing test and see where you land.
What counts as a “word”?
Typing tests do not count real words, because long and short words would make scores unfair. The standard is that every 5 characters, including spaces, count as one word. Most tests, ours included, only count correctly typed words, so a fast but sloppy run does not score well.
What the research says
Computer keyboards: 168,000 typists
In 2018, researchers from Aalto University and the University of Cambridge published a study of 168,000 volunteers who typed randomly chosen sentences online, a total of 136 million keystrokes.
- The average speed was 52 WPM.
- The fastest typists reached about 120 WPM, on sentences they had never seen before.
- People who had taken a typing course typed about the same as people who never had: similar speed, similar hand use, similar errors.
- The fastest typists used rollover typing: pressing the next key before releasing the last one, on 40 to 70% of their keystrokes.
For comparison, trained typists in the typewriter era typically reached 60 to 90 WPM.
Phones: 37,370 typists
A follow-up study in 2019 looked at mobile typing. Across 37,370 volunteers, the average was 36.2 WPM, with 2.3% of errors left uncorrected. People who used autocorrect tended to type faster, while those who leaned on word suggestions tended to be slower.
Typing speed benchmarks
These bands are a practical guide for a keyboard test like ours, based on the averages above.
| Speed | What it means |
|---|---|
| Under 30 WPM | Beginner, or hunting for keys. Very common with two-finger typing. |
| 30 to 45 WPM | Below average for a keyboard, about average on a phone. |
| 45 to 60 WPM | Around the average adult on a keyboard. |
| 60 to 80 WPM | Good. Comfortable for almost any office job. |
| 80 to 100 WPM | Fast. Faster than the large majority of people. |
| Over 100 WPM | Very fast. Usually years of practice and rollover typing. |
Accuracy matters as much as speed. A score of 70 WPM with many mistakes is less useful than 55 WPM that is nearly perfect. Aim for 95% accuracy or better before you push for speed.
What makes some people faster
The large keyboard study found that speed was linked less to training and more to how the fingers move:
- Letter pairs typed with different hands or different fingers predicted speed better than repeated letters did. Fast typists keep both hands busy.
- Rollover. Fast typists overlap keystrokes instead of pressing one key at a time.
- Fewer corrections. Faster typists generally made fewer errors, so they spent less time on backspace.
How to type faster
- Look at the screen, not the keys. Glancing down costs time on every word. If you do not touch type yet, learn the home row (ASDF and JKL;) and let your fingers find their way from there.
- Use more fingers. Spreading keys across both hands is what the fastest typists do. Even moving from two fingers to four makes a big difference.
- Slow down to get accurate first. Errors are expensive. Build accuracy at a relaxed pace, and speed follows.
- Practice little and often. Ten minutes a day beats an hour once a week. Short tests like our typing test make a good daily habit.
- Type real text. Copy a paragraph from a book or article. Common words and letter pairs will become automatic, which is where rollover comes from.
- Relax your hands. Tension slows you down and tires you out. Keep your wrists level and your fingers loose.
Sources
- Dhakal, V., Feit, A. M., Kristensson, P. O., & Oulasvirta, A. (2018). Observations on typing from 136 million keystrokes. Proceedings of CHI 2018. Summary: University of Cambridge, “What makes a faster typist?”
- Palin, K., Feit, A. M., Kim, S., Kristensson, P. O., & Oulasvirta, A. (2019). How do people type on mobile devices? Observations from a study with 37,000 volunteers. Proceedings of MobileHCI 2019.
