How is words per minute worked out?

A word is counted as five characters, which is the standard every typing test uses so that a run of long words is not punished. Your score is the number of characters you typed correctly, divided by five, scaled to a full minute. Raw speed is the same sum done over every character you typed, right or wrong, so the gap between the two numbers is the cost of your mistakes.

How is accuracy worked out?

Every key you press is checked against the letter it should have been, and accuracy is the share that matched. Backspace is free and never counts against you, but a letter you had to correct still counts as the mistake it was, which is why fixing errors does not repair the accuracy figure.

What do the difficulty levels change?

The words you are given. Easy is short everyday words in plain lower case. Medium widens the vocabulary and the word length. Hard adds long and awkward words together with capitals, punctuation and the odd number, so your fingers have to leave the home row.

Which test length should I pick?

Fifteen seconds measures your burst speed and flatters you. Sixty seconds is the length most people quote and the one to compare against others. Two minutes is the honest one, because it is long enough for tiredness and concentration to show up in the number.

What is a good typing speed?

Around 40 words per minute is an average adult typing without looking down much. Sixty to seventy is comfortable touch typing and is what most office work wants. Anything past 100 is genuinely fast. Accuracy matters more than any of it: 60 words per minute at 98 percent beats 80 at 90 percent, because the second one spends its lead going back to fix things.

Are my scores saved anywhere?

Your best score for each length and difficulty is kept in your own browser and nowhere else. There is no account, nothing is uploaded, and clearing your browsing data clears your bests with it.

Yes, completely free, with no signup and no limit on how many times you take it.

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Typing test

Pick a length, pick a difficulty and start typing. You get your words per minute, your accuracy and your best run so far. Free, no signup, and it all happens on your device.

Ready

30Your speed shows as you type

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The clock starts on your first keystroke, not before.

Longer words and a wider vocabulary, still plain lower case.

Space moves to the next word. Esc starts a fresh test at any time.

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How the test works

Words scroll past three lines at a time and you type them one after another, pressing space to move on. Every letter is marked as you go: correct letters turn solid, wrong ones turn red, and anything you type past the end of a word is struck through. The clock does not start when you press the button, it starts on your first keystroke, so you can settle your hands first without losing a second of it.

Reading your score

Words per minute counts a word as five characters, which is the standard used everywhere, so a run of long words does not drag your number down. Raw speed does the same sum over everything you typed, right or wrong, so the distance between the two is exactly what your mistakes cost you. Accuracy is the share of your key presses that landed on the right letter. Backspace is free, but a letter you had to go back and fix still counts as a miss, which is the point: fast typing that needs constant repair is not fast.

Lengths and difficulties

Fifteen seconds is a burst and will always give you your prettiest number. Sixty seconds is the one most people mean when they say their typing speed, and the fairest to compare with anybody else. Two minutes is the one that tells the truth, because concentration starts to show. Easy keeps to short everyday words, medium widens the vocabulary, and hard brings in long awkward words with capitals, punctuation and numbers, which is much closer to real writing than a clean stream of lower case ever is. A best is kept for every combination, so a hard sixty is never compared against an easy fifteen.

Getting faster

The fastest way to a better score is to stop looking at your hands and slow down until you are accurate, then let speed come back on its own. Aim for 98 percent first and the words per minute follows within a few weeks. If you are teaching a room full of people, run everyone on the same length and difficulty and compare the accuracy column rather than the speed one, because that is the number that actually improves with practice.

More to play

The word grid and guess the country are the other games in the play section. If you want a clock for something else entirely, there is a countdown timer and a stopwatch on the tools page.