Home Text tools Typing Test

Typing Test

This free typing test measures how fast and how accurately you type. Choose a 30 second or 60 second typing speed test, type the passage on screen, and watch your WPM, accuracy, character count and errors update live — then see your gross WPM, net WPM and accuracy the moment the timer runs out.

0WPM
100.0%Accuracy
0Characters
0Errors
60Seconds left

Click or tap the passage and start typing. The timer starts on your first keystroke.

What is a typing test?

A typing test is a short timed exercise that measures how many words you can type per minute and how many of those keystrokes were correct. Because a typist's rhythm varies so much from word to word, every test fixes a word as five characters, spaces included. That turns typing speed into a character rate: WPM = (characters typed / 5) / minutes. Type 300 characters in 60 seconds and the arithmetic is 300 / 5 = 60 words per minute.

A single run produces two speeds. Gross WPM counts every character you produced, right or wrong. Net WPM counts only the characters that matched the passage, so it is the honest measure of usable output: 285 correct characters in 60 seconds is (285 / 5) / 1 = 57 net WPM. Accuracy is the third number — correct characters divided by characters typed. Those same 285 correct characters out of 300 typed give 285 / 300 = 95.0% accuracy, with 15 errors along the way.

Net WPM and accuracy pull in the same direction, which is why a careful typist so often beats a fast careless one. A run of 60 gross WPM at 85% accuracy lands near 51 net WPM, while 50 gross WPM at 99% accuracy lands near 49.5 — almost identical output, with far less correction work. Practise accuracy first, and raw speed tends to follow on its own.

How to use

  1. Choose a test length — 30 seconds for a quick check, or 60 seconds for a score you can compare against a job requirement.
  2. Pick a passage. There are four of them, so a second run is never the same text as the first.
  3. Click or tap the passage and start typing. The countdown begins on your first keystroke, not on the click.
  4. Watch the live readouts: WPM, accuracy, characters and errors update as you type, with the seconds counting down beside them.
  5. When the timer reaches zero the result panel opens with gross WPM, net WPM, accuracy and errors. Press Restart for another run, or the clipboard icon to copy the summary.

Example

Suppose you finish a 60 second test having typed 300 characters, of which 285 match the passage and 15 do not. Gross WPM treats a word as five characters, so 300 / 5 = 60 gross WPM. Net WPM uses only the characters that were right: (285 / 5) / 1 = 57 net WPM. Accuracy is correct characters over characters typed: 285 / 300 = 95.0%. The fifteen wrong keystrokes are the error count, and the gap between 60 gross and 57 net is exactly what those mistakes cost you.

Run the same pace for 30 seconds instead and the rates roughly double: 300 characters in 30 seconds is (300 / 5) / 0.5 = 120 gross WPM, which is why one minute is the fairer test. Now take a slower, cleaner typist who types 240 characters in 60 seconds with only 2 errors: gross is (240 / 5) / 1 = 48 WPM, accuracy is 238 / 240 = 99.2%, and net WPM is (238 / 5) / 1 = 47.6, which the tool rounds to 48. That is why net WPM, not gross, is the figure worth quoting.

Who is this for?

What WPM means in practice

Because a word is counted as five characters, every speed translates into a fixed character rate. The table below converts common typing speeds into characters per minute and into the volume you would type across a five minute burst.

Typing speedCharacters per minuteWords in 5 minutesCharacters in 5 minutesTypical level
20 WPM100100500Beginner
40 WPM2002001,000Common job baseline
60 WPM3003001,500Above average
80 WPM4004002,000Fast
100 WPM5005002,500Very fast

Words are counted as five characters, the standard used by typing tests, so 40 WPM is the same as 200 characters per minute. Rounded to whole figures for a steady pace.

Common use cases

Pro tips

FAQ

What is a good typing speed?

Around 40 WPM is the baseline most employers ask for, 60 to 70 WPM is above average for a casual typist, and 80 WPM or more is genuinely fast. Above 100 WPM you are in competition territory, where a dedicated typist can reach 120 to 150 WPM.

How is WPM calculated?

WPM = (characters typed / 5) / minutes, because a word is standardised as five characters including spaces. Type 300 characters in 60 seconds and you get 300 / 5 = 60 WPM.

What is net WPM?

Gross WPM counts every character you typed, right or wrong, while net WPM counts only the characters that matched the passage. Net WPM is therefore always equal to or lower than gross WPM, and it is the number worth quoting to an employer.

How long is the typing test?

You choose 30 seconds or 60 seconds in the duration menu. A 60 second run is the standard most jobs use for a typing requirement, because it smooths out a lucky or unlucky start.

Can I retake the test?

Yes, as often as you like. Press Restart for a fresh run of the same passage, or pick a different passage from the menu so you are not reciting text you have already memorised.

Does it work on a phone or tablet?

Yes. Tap the passage and the on-screen keyboard appears, and the tool counts what you type exactly as it does on a laptop. Most people score lower on a glass screen than on a physical keyboard.

Is my typing data sent anywhere?

No. Every keystroke is measured inside your own browser, and nothing is uploaded, stored or shared, so the page keeps working offline once it has loaded.

Is this typing test free?

Yes. It is free with no sign-up, no download and no limit on how many runs you complete.

How can I type faster?

Fix accuracy first. Slow down to the speed at which you make almost no mistakes, keep your eyes on the screen instead of your hands, and practise for 10 to 15 minutes a day so common letter patterns become automatic.

What is typing accuracy?

Accuracy is correct characters divided by total characters typed, shown as a percentage. Typing 300 characters with 285 correct gives 285 / 300 = 95.0% accuracy.

Do punctuation and capital letters count?

Yes. Every character in the passage counts, including spaces, commas, full stops and capitals, so a missing capital letter is an error even when the other letters are right.

Is a 1 minute typing test accurate enough?

A one minute typing test is a good snapshot and is what most employers use, but a short run swings on a single clumsy word. Run it a few times and take your middle score as the honest figure.

Related searches

typing test, typing speed test, wpm test, typing practice, test my typing speed, typing accuracy test, free typing test, online typing test, words per minute test, 1 minute typing test, typing speed checker, improve typing speed

Related tools