Most people want to know one thing: am I fast, slow, or normal? The honest answer is that "average" depends on who you measure. This guide explains where the common numbers come from, what counts as a good typing speed, and how to measure your own
speed fairly with our free typing speed test
What Is the Average Typing Speed?
The figure you will see most often is around 40 WPM for adults typing on a physical keyboard. It is a widely repeated rule of thumb, not the result of one official study.
The largest public dataset gives a higher number. In 2018, researchers at Aalto University analysed 136 million keystrokes from 168,000 volunteers and found:
• Average speed: 52 WPM
• Fastest participants: around 120 WPM
• Most participants (68%) were from the United States
Why You See Different Averages
The two numbers measure different groups of people:
• The 40 WPM figure is meant to describe everyday adults, including people who rarely type.
• The 52 WPM figure comes from people who chose to take an online typing test. People who seek out a typing test usually type more than average, so the result skews higher.
Neither number is wrong. Think of 40–52 WPM as the normal range for adults on a keyboard.
What Is a Good Typing Speed?
A good typing speed depends on what you need it for. The bands below are a common rule-of-thumb guide, not official categories:
| Speed (WPM) | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Under 30 | Beginner, or still looking at the keys |
| 30–50 | Around average for adults |
| 50–70 | Above average and comfortable for most office work |
| 70–90 | Fast |
| 90+ | Very fast, typical of experienced or competitive typists |
Is 60 WPM Good?
Yes. By both common averages, 60 WPM puts you comfortably above typical. At 60 WPM, typing stops being the slow part of most writing tasks.
What Is a Fast Typing Speed?
Most people would call anything above 70 WPM fast. In the Aalto study, the fastest users reached about 120 WPM, which is more than double the study's average.
What Does WPM Mean?
WPM stands for words per minute. In typing tests, a "word" is not a real word. It is a fixed unit of five characters, including spaces and punctuation.
This standard makes results fair. Otherwise, typing "a" and typing "extraordinary" would each count as one word.
There are two common versions:
• Raw WPM counts every character you typed, including mistakes.
• Net WPM counts only correct characters, so errors lower your score.
Net WPM is the more honest number. Our typing speed test
calculates it as (correct characters ÷ 5) ÷ minutes.
Typing Speed on a Phone vs a Keyboard
Phone typing is slower, but the gap is smaller than many people assume. In a 2019 Aalto University study with more than 37,000 volunteers:
• People typing with two thumbs averaged about 38 WPM
• That is only about 25% slower than the same researchers' keyboard study
• Over 74% of people typed with two thumbs
• Turning on autocorrect gave a clear speed boost, while word prediction did not
• People aged 10–19 typed about 10 WPM faster than people in their 40s
• The fastest phone typist reached 85 WPM
So if your phone score is lower than your keyboard score, that is normal. Compare phone results only with other phone results.
What Fast Typists Do Differently
The Aalto keyboard study found results that surprise many people:
• You do not need a typing course to type fast. People who had taken a course typed very similarly to people who never had one.
• Ten fingers is not required. Self-taught typists using fewer fingers reached speeds similar to touch typists.
• Fast typists use "rollover". They press the next key before releasing the previous one. The fastest users did this on 40–70% of keystrokes.
• Faster typists generally make fewer mistakes. Speed and accuracy tend to improve together.
How to Test Your Typing Speed Accurately
A single test can mislead you. For a result you can trust:
1. Use a physical keyboard if you want a keyboard score.
2. Pick one duration and keep it. A 30-second test shows burst speed, while a 2-minute or 5-minute test shows whether you can hold that pace.
3. Keep the same difficulty. Passages with numbers and punctuation are harder, so switching modes makes your scores hard to compare.
4. Run the test three times and use your average, not your best run.
5. Check accuracy, not only WPM. 70 WPM at 90% accuracy usually produces less usable text than 55 WPM at 99%.
Our free typing speed test runs in your browser with no signup. The timer starts on your first keystroke, and you can choose from four difficulty modes and four durations.
How to Improve Your Typing Speed
1. Slow down to get accurate first. Speed builds on clean keystrokes.
2. Stop looking at the keyboard. This is usually the biggest single jump.
3. Practise short and often. Ten minutes a day works better than one long weekly session.
4. Practise with full sentences, including capitals and punctuation, because that is what real typing looks like.
5. Track your progress weekly on the same test settings so you can see real change.
Key Takeaways
• The average typing speed is often quoted at 40 WPM. A large study of online typists measured 52 WPM.
• 60 WPM is comfortably above average, and 70+ WPM is fast.
• A typing "word" equals five characters.
• Phone typing averages around 38 WPM with two thumbs.
• Accuracy matters as much as speed.
Ready to see where you land? Take the typing speed test compare your result with the bands above.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 40 WPM a good typing speed?
Yes. 40 WPM is around the commonly quoted average for adults, so it is a solid, normal speed. Most people can reach 50–60 WPM with regular practice.
How long does it take to improve typing speed?
It varies from person to person. Steady daily practice usually shows a measurable change within a few weeks, especially if you stop looking at the keyboard.
Does accuracy matter more than speed?
Both matter, but accuracy comes first. Every mistake has to be fixed, so a slightly slower typist with high accuracy often finishes a task sooner.
Do I need to touch type to type fast?
Not necessarily. In a study of 168,000 typists, self-taught people using fewer fingers reached speeds similar to trained touch typists.
Is the PotatoTools typing test free?
Yes. It is free, needs no signup, and runs in your browser. Your typing is not uploaded to a server.
Sources
• Aalto University (2018), The traits of fast typists discovered by analysing 136 million —
https://www.aalto.fi/en/news/the-traits-of-fast-typists-discovered-by-analysing-136-million-keystrokes
keystrokes — Smartphone typing speeds catching up with keyboards —
https://www.aalto.fi/en/news/smartphone-typing-speeds-catching-up-with-keyboards