The commonly cited average for adults is around 40 WPM. But the largest published dataset, Dhakal, Feit, Kristensson & Oulasvirta’s CHI 2018 study of 136 million keystrokes from 168,000 online volunteers, puts the average at roughly 52 WPM. The gap is self-selection: people who choose to take an online typing test skew faster than the general population. Find your own number on the free typing test, no signup, with a separate personal best for every duration and difficulty.
How WPM is calculated (and why two sites give you different numbers)
The standard: one “word” equals 5 characters, including spaces. Gross WPM = (total characters typed ÷ 5) ÷ minutes. Net WPM = gross WPM minus your uncorrected errors per minute. A site that reports only gross WPM will always show a higher number than one that reports net, even from the identical typing run. Our typing test reports WPM, accuracy percentage and raw speed as three separate numbers, rather than blending them, so you can see exactly what each measures.
Worked example: type 250 characters in 60 seconds with 2 uncorrected errors. Gross WPM is (250 ÷ 5) ÷ 1 minute = 50 WPM. Net WPM subtracts the 2 errors, landing at 48 WPM. That two-word gap is exactly why the same run can post a “50” on one site and a “48” on another, neither number is wrong, they’re just measuring slightly different things. Always check which one a site is reporting before comparing scores across tools, especially if a job posting or classroom benchmark specifies which figure it wants.
Average typing speed by age, the chart
| Group | Typical WPM | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Adults (general average) | ~41 WPM | Ratatype, 506,000 typing tests |
| Online test-takers (self-selected) | ~52 WPM | Dhakal et al., CHI 2018, 168,000 participants |
| Kids, ages 6–11 (beginner) | ~15 WPM | Typing.com |
| Teens, ages 12–16 (beginner) | ~30 WPM | Typing.com |
| Intermediate typists (any age) | ~40 WPM | Typing.com |
These are ranges from real measured or self-reported data, not single “correct” numbers, treat them as a rough sense of where you stand rather than a target to hit exactly. Curious where you actually land? Take the free typing test and compare your own number against the chart above.
Typing speed by grade level for teachers
Typing.com’s own recommended targets, not a mandated curriculum standard, and the source itself is explicit that these are flexible, not fixed:
| Grade band | Typical target WPM |
|---|---|
| Elementary (beginner) | ~15 WPM |
| Middle school (beginner–intermediate) | ~30 WPM |
| High school and up (intermediate) | ~40 WPM |
Keyboarding benchmarks vary by district and by curriculum, treat any grade-level number, including these, as a target to aim for rather than a norm every student is expected to already meet. A student who’s behind the target for their grade isn’t necessarily behind on reading or writing skill generally, typing is a distinct motor skill that some students pick up faster than others regardless of how strong their other schoolwork is, and it responds well to short, regular practice sessions rather than occasional long ones.
What’s a good WPM for an adult?
Descriptive bands, not a judgment on anyone’s typing: under 30 WPM is typically hunt-and-peck typing, 40 WPM is functional for everyday use, 50–60 WPM is a comfortable touch typist, 70–80 WPM is fast, and 100+ WPM is genuinely rare. Most adults sit somewhere in the functional-to-comfortable range, and there’s a wide gap between “slower than average” and “struggling,” typing speed only matters as much as your actual work requires it to.
Hunt-and-peck typing, looking at the keyboard and using two or a few fingers, isn’t inherently a problem, plenty of people communicate everything they need to at 25-30 WPM without ever switching to touch typing. Where it starts to matter is when a job specifically requires a higher number, or when the physical strain of looking down constantly becomes uncomfortable over a full workday. Touch typing, keeping your eyes on the screen and using all ten fingers with practiced finger placement, is the technique behind most scores above 50 WPM, since it removes the visual search time that hunt-and-peck typing spends looking for each key.
What typing speed do employers ask for?
General office and admin roles commonly ask for around 40 WPM, data entry roles more often expect 50–60 WPM or higher, and transcription work typically asks for more still. One frequent point of confusion: court stenographers routinely exceed 200 WPM, but they’re typing on a stenotype machine using phonetic shorthand, not a standard QWERTY keyboard, so that figure isn’t comparable to a regular typing test score. Comparing a stenotype figure to a QWERTY score is a bit like comparing a sprinter’s 100-meter time to a cyclist’s, both are measuring speed, but the tool and the technique are different enough that the raw numbers don’t translate directly. If a job posting lists a WPM requirement, that number is usually measured on a standard 5-minute or timed passage test rather than a short online burst, and it often expects net WPM (errors already subtracted) rather than raw speed, worth confirming which one before you assume your practice-test score already clears the bar.
Why your score jumps around
Several things move your number between runs that have nothing to do with your actual skill changing: test length (a 15-second burst rewards a fast start more than a sustained 120-second run), difficulty (punctuation and numerals typically cost 10–20% off your speed compared to plain lowercase text), your keyboard, whether you’ve warmed up, and even the screen you’re typing on. Our test keeps a separate personal best for every duration (15/30/60/120 seconds) and difficulty (Easy/Medium/Hard) combination, so you’re never comparing a quick easy run against a longer hard one and drawing the wrong conclusion about your progress.
A short burst rewards a fast, confident start more than sustained accuracy, since there’s barely time for fatigue or a slip to drag the average down. A longer run exposes the opposite, a strong opening can still end with a lower final number if concentration slips in the last stretch, which is exactly why a 15-second personal best and a 120-second personal best measure genuinely different things and shouldn’t be read as the same skill. Difficulty compounds this further: Easy is short everyday words, all lower case, Medium moves to longer words and a wider vocabulary while staying plain lower case, and Hard mixes in capitals, punctuation and numbers on top of longer, less common words. Each step up costs real speed even for an identical typist, so a Hard-difficulty score that looks lower than an Easy one from last week isn’t necessarily a regression.
Accuracy matters more than speed
A 70 WPM run at 90% accuracy is often slower in real work than a 55 WPM run at 99%, once you count the time spent noticing and fixing mistakes after the fact. Our test counts a backspaced character as an error, since a real typing task, an email, a document, a message, still took the extra keystroke and the extra half-second to correct it, even though the final text looks clean. Speed without accuracy isn’t really speed, it’s a number that doesn’t survive contact with real writing.
This matters most for anyone practicing toward a specific target, chasing a higher gross WPM by typing faster and sloppier, then cleaning up mistakes after the fact, doesn’t actually build the skill a real job or benchmark is measuring. Slowing down slightly to raise accuracy first, then gradually building speed back up without losing that accuracy, tends to produce a more durable improvement than repeatedly typing fast and error-prone in the hope that speed alone will show progress.
How to find your own number
- Pick a 60-second run at Medium difficulty, a fair baseline for a first attempt.
- Sit with your screen at eye level and your wrists relaxed, posture affects speed more than most people expect.
- Type naturally rather than racing, your real number matters more than an inflated one.
Run it two or three times across a week rather than judging yourself off a single attempt, the first run of any session usually undersells you slightly while your fingers find their rhythm.
Take the typing test now, or start with the shorter 1 minute typing test if a full session feels like too much commitment. Browse free online tools for the rest of the toolkit, or solo browser games if you’d rather unwind first.
FAQ
What is the average typing speed for a 10-year-old?
Typing.com’s own benchmarks put beginners aged 6-11 at roughly 15 WPM. A 10-year-old with a year or two of regular practice often lands higher than that starting point, but 15 WPM is a reasonable baseline for a child still building the skill.
Is 60 WPM good?
Yes, comfortably. It sits above both the commonly cited ~41 WPM adult average (Ratatype, 506,000 tests) and the ~52 WPM average from the largest published dataset (CHI 2018, 168,000 online test-takers). 60 WPM is squarely in “comfortable touch typist” territory.
How is WPM calculated?
One “word” is standardized as 5 characters, including spaces. Gross WPM is (total characters typed ÷ 5) ÷ minutes typing. Net WPM subtracts your uncorrected errors per minute from that gross figure, which is why two sites can report different numbers from the same run.
What’s the difference between raw WPM and net WPM?
Raw (or gross) WPM counts everything you typed, right or wrong. Net WPM subtracts uncorrected errors, so it reflects what you actually produced correctly. Our typing test reports both, plus accuracy, separately, rather than blending them into one number.
Does a backspace fix an error?
It fixes the character on screen, but our test still counts the original mistake against your error rate, since a real typing task, an email, a document, a message, took the extra time and keystroke to correct it. Speed and accuracy are both measured on what actually happened, not just the final text.
Ready to see your number? Take the free typing test, no signup, with a personal best tracked separately for every duration and difficulty.