KeycapBlog · 3 min read ·
What is a good typing speed?
Average typing speed is about 40 wpm. Here is what the common benchmarks mean, how wpm is counted, and why accuracy decides which number you can trust.
A good typing speed depends on what you type for. The figure most typing tests report as average is around 40 words per minute. People who type for a living tend to sit between 65 and 75 wpm. Above 100 wpm you are faster than nearly everyone who has not trained for it, and competitive typists on sites like monkeytype post 150 wpm and more on short tests.
Those numbers only mean something if they were measured the same way. Before you compare, check two things: how the test counts a word, and what it does with mistakes.
How a word is counted
A "word" in a typing test is not a real word. It is five characters, spaces included. That convention lets a passage full of short words and a passage full of long ones produce comparable figures. So 200 correct characters in one minute is 40 wpm, whatever the words were.
Raw speed and net speed
Most tests show two figures. Raw wpm counts every character you typed at that pace. wpm (sometimes "net") counts only the characters that were correct. The gap between them is your mistakes, priced in. A raw 70 with a net 52 is a different typist from a raw 55 with a net 52, and the second one is closer to being fast.
What the benchmarks look like
| Range | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Under 30 wpm | Hunting for keys; looking at the keyboard most of the time |
| 30–45 wpm | Typical of people who never learned touch typing |
| 45–65 wpm | Touch typing, with a few keys still slow |
| 65–80 wpm | Fluent; the range most typing-heavy jobs expect |
| 80–100 wpm | Fast; usually the result of deliberate practice |
| 100+ wpm | Faster than almost everyone; keeps improving with aimed practice |
These are descriptions, not targets. The right target is the next range up from where you are, at an accuracy you can hold.
Why accuracy comes first
Speed without accuracy is not speed. Every mistake costs the keystroke, the backspace, and the retype — three keystrokes to produce one character — and it breaks the rhythm that fast typing depends on. A typist at 50 wpm and 98% accuracy will pass one at 60 wpm and 92% within a few weeks of practice, because they have less to unlearn.
This is why a trainer built for improvement measures accuracy per key, not only overall. Two typists at 96% can have very different problems: one is slow on the left pinky, the other stumbles on every ; and p. The average hides that. A per-key record shows it, and once it is visible it can be fixed.
How to find out where you are
Take a one-minute test on common English words, not on a passage about a topic. Topic prose varies too much between attempts to compare. Note the net wpm and the accuracy. Then take the same test again a week later, at the same length and on the same kind of material. That second reading is the one that tells you something.
Common questions
Is 40 wpm a good typing speed?
It is about average. It is enough for everyday use, but touch typing at 60 wpm or more is reachable for most people with a few weeks of aimed practice.
What typing speed do jobs require?
Roles that involve typing all day, such as transcription or data entry, commonly ask for 60 to 80 wpm with high accuracy. Most office work does not state a requirement, but 50 wpm and up stops typing being the bottleneck.
Is 100 wpm fast?
Yes. Fewer than one typist in twenty reaches 100 wpm, and most of those trained for it. It is a realistic goal for someone who already touch types accurately.