Typing speed test
Take the test, then read what the number actually means — and why it moves depending on how you measure it.
What counts as a good score
The honest answer is that it depends what you do with a keyboard, and that most published averages are gathered from people taking an online test once, which selects for the curious rather than the typical. Treat the bands below as orientation rather than a grade.
For programming specifically, raw prose speed matters less than most people assume. Code is written in short bursts between long pauses for thought, and the character count of a working day is low. Past roughly 70 words per minute on prose, the thing that slows a developer down is navigating, renaming and restructuring — not the rate at which characters arrive.
Why your raw speed is higher than your score
Both figures are shown after every run, and the difference between them is the most actionable number on the page. Raw counts every character you typed; your score counts only the correct ones. A run at 90 raw and 68 net is telling you that roughly a quarter of your keystrokes were wasted.
That gap is almost always cheaper to close than raw speed is to raise. Dropping your raw rate by five words per minute while eliminating half your errors usually produces a higher net score, and it produces a far more comfortable one, because the alternative is a stream of corrections that break your rhythm and your attention.
The same typist scores differently on different tests
Test length matters. A fifteen-second run rewards a sprint and is dominated by whichever words happened to come up; a minute is long enough for the passage to average out and for your actual sustainable rate to show. If you are tracking progress over weeks, keep the duration fixed, or you are measuring the test rather than yourself.
The text matters as much. Common words drawn from a short list can be typed as whole units, and speeds on them run well above what the same person manages on unfamiliar prose, punctuation or anything capitalised. This is also why a code score is not comparable to a prose score, and why the two are kept separate here rather than averaged into one misleading figure.
None of which makes any single measurement wrong. It means a score is only meaningful next to another score taken the same way, which is the argument for measuring the same way repeatedly rather than chasing a number.
Typing speed reference points
Rough orientation, not a grading scale. Published averages are drawn largely from people who chose to take a test.
- under 30Hunt and peck
- Typing with two to four fingers while watching the keyboard. The ceiling here is looking down, not finger speed.
- about 40Average adult
- Where most people who use a keyboard daily without ever training sit.
- 50 to 65Competent touch typist
- Typing without looking, accurately. Most office work never needs more than this.
- 65 to 80Professional
- The range historically expected of someone paid to type. A realistic target for a developer who practises.
- 80 to 100Fast
- Noticeably quick. Past this point the bottleneck in most work is thinking, not typing.
- 100 and aboveExceptional
- Sustained three-figure prose speed. The documented record for sustained typing is around 150, with bursts well beyond it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good typing speed for a programmer?
Around 70 words per minute on prose is comfortably enough that typing is no longer the constraint. Beyond that, accuracy on symbols and fluency with your editor pay off far more than additional raw speed.
Is 40 WPM slow?
It is roughly average for an adult who has never trained, and entirely workable. It is also the range where deliberate practice pays off fastest, because the usual limiter is still looking at the keyboard.
Why is my score lower here than on another test?
Different tests use different word lists, durations and penalties. This one counts only correct characters and charges every keystroke against accuracy, which reads lower than tests scoring your finished text.
How long should a typing test be?
One minute for a figure you can trust. Fifteen seconds is a sprint dominated by which words came up; five minutes measures stamina, which is a different thing worth knowing separately.
Want to move the number rather than measure it? How to improve your typing speed covers the technique, and code typing practice covers it for the syntax you write at work.