Typing Speed Test

Typing Speed Test measures how fast and how accurately you type over a passage of real words. The clock starts on your first keystroke rather than when the page loads, so the time spent finding the box and getting your hands into position is not counted against you.

Speed is reported as net words per minute, using the convention every typing test has used since mechanical typewriters: a word is five characters including the space after it, and mistakes are removed before the figure is calculated. Counting real words would make a passage of short words look faster than the same typing on long ones, which is exactly the comparison the five-character rule exists to prevent.

Mistakes are marked as you make them, in the passage itself, so you can see where you are going wrong rather than only how often. Typing on without correcting is fine: the accuracy figure counts every character against the one it should have been, and the speed figure only counts the ones you got right. The average adult types around 40 words per minute; a touch typist is usually 60 to 80, and professional transcription work starts above that.

• Net words per minute, the standard five-character measure
• Mistakes marked live in the passage as you type
• Fifteen seconds to five minutes
• Plain words, or with capitals, punctuation and numbers
• Accuracy as a percentage of every character typed
• Your last ten results, kept in this browser only
• Nothing you type is sent anywhere
• Works with a keyboard alone, no mouse needed after the first click

The typing speed test is used by writers, developers, students, marketers and anyone else who needs the job done once without installing software. Common cases include:

• Checking your typing speed before a job application
• Practising touch typing and tracking improvement
• Comparing speed on plain words against punctuation and numbers
• Testing a new keyboard or a new layout
• Settling an argument about who types faster