Typing Speed Test

On a computer, just start typing. Your first key starts the clock. Letters turn bright as you get them right and red when they are wrong. Press Space to move to the next word. Backspace deletes a letter, and Ctrl+Backspace (Option+Backspace on a Mac) clears the whole word. Press Esc at any time to restart with fresh words.

On a phone or tablet, tap the text to bring up your keyboard, then type as you normally would. The space bar moves you to the next word. Typing on glass is slower than on keys for almost everyone, so compare phone scores with other phone scores.

Use the menu above the text to choose a 15, 30, 60 or 120-second test, and the Aa. button to switch on capital letters and punctuation.

1. The clock starts with your first keystroke, not when the page loads.
2. Words are shown three lines at a time. Finished lines scroll away as you go.
3. Press Space to finish a word. A word only counts if every letter is right and there are no extra letters.
4. You can step back into the previous word with Backspace only if it contains a mistake.
5. WPM is the number of correct characters (including the space after each correct word) divided by five, per minute of the test.
6. Accuracy is the percentage of all your keystrokes that were correct, including mistakes you later fixed.
7. If you switch to another tab or app, the clock pauses. Your next keystroke starts it again.

Accuracy first, speed second. A wrong word earns nothing toward WPM, and stopping to fix it costs time. Typing slightly slower but cleanly almost always gives a higher score than rushing.

Read ahead. Let your eyes stay a word or two in front of your fingers. You’ll stop pausing between words, and the rhythm of a steady flow is faster than bursts and stops.

Keep your hands home. If you touch-type, return your fingers to the home row (the middle row of letters) between words. If you don’t, this test is a good, low-pressure place to start practising.

Don’t fight a mistake you’ve passed. If you notice an error two words back, it’s usually better to keep going than to backspace through correct work.

Relax. Tension in your shoulders and wrists slows you down. Sit comfortably, keep your wrists loose, and breathe.

Train in short sessions. A few one-minute tests every day improve speed far more than an hour once a week.

The idea of measuring typing speed is nearly as old as the typewriter itself. Commercial typewriters appeared in the 1870s, and by the 1880s typing contests were drawing crowds and newspaper reporters. One famous contest in 1888 helped popularise touch typing, in which the typist never looks at the keys. Through the twentieth century, office jobs routinely listed a minimum words-per-minute requirement, and schools taught typing as a practical skill.

The convention of counting five characters as one word comes from that era. Real words vary a lot in length, so a fixed five-character “word” makes results comparable between different texts. Computer keyboards made typing faster and quieter, and online typing tests turned the old exam into a quick game you can play any time.

• Timed tests, like this one, run for a fixed time and score what you managed.
• Fixed-text tests give you a set passage and time how long you take to finish it.
• Punctuation and numbers add capitals, symbols and digits for a closer match to real writing.
• Code typing uses programming text full of brackets and symbols.
• Racing modes put several typists against each other on the same text, so you see who finishes first.