What is the average typing speed?

The most commonly cited figure is around 40 words per minute for an average adult, with professional typists typically in the 65–75 range. These are widely repeated rules of thumb rather than a single definitive study.

What is the fastest typing speed ever recorded?

Record claims generally sit above 200 words per minute on short bursts of prepared text. Sustained speeds over long passages are considerably lower, which is why test length matters so much when comparing figures.

Why is my typing speed different on different sites?

Test length, the difficulty of the words, whether punctuation and capitals are included, and how each site counts errors all change the result. Comparing two sites directly is rarely meaningful; comparing your own results on one test is.

Average typing speed: what is normal?

Almost every typing site quotes an average. Very few say where it came from. Here is what the widely repeated figures are, how much to trust them, and what actually moves your own number.

The figures people quote

The number repeated most often is around 40 words per minute for an average adult, with experienced or professional typists in the 65–75 range and the fastest measured typists well above 120.

Treat these as rules of thumb. They circulate widely, they are broadly consistent with one another, and they are not the output of one definitive modern study of the general population. Anyone presenting a precise population average to the decimal point is guessing.

Why your number moves so much

The same person can easily differ by 20 words per minute between two tests, for reasons that have nothing to do with skill.

Test length — a 15-second test flatters you; five minutes does not
The text — common short words are far faster than technical vocabulary
Punctuation and capitals — these can cost 10–20% of your rate
The keyboard — travel, spacing and layout matter more than people expect
Whether you are copying visible text or composing your own thoughts

Copying versus writing

A typing test measures transcription: the text is in front of you, so the only question is how fast you can reproduce it. Writing an email is a different task, because thinking takes most of the time.

This is why a composition speed and a test speed are not comparable, and why we keep our vocabulary trainer's figures separate from the speed test's — one includes reading and thinking time, the other does not.

A fair way to compare yourself

Use the same test length and the same kind of text every time, and compare against your own history rather than a stranger's number. That is the only comparison with any real information in it.

Our results are stored per test length and per text source for precisely this reason: a 15-second sprint on common words is not the same measurement as five minutes of punctuated sentences, and treating them as one record would be dishonest.

Common questions

What is the average typing speed?: The most commonly cited figure is around 40 words per minute for an average adult, with professional typists typically in the 65–75 range. These are widely repeated rules of thumb rather than a single definitive study.
What is the fastest typing speed ever recorded?: Record claims generally sit above 200 words per minute on short bursts of prepared text. Sustained speeds over long passages are considerably lower, which is why test length matters so much when comparing figures.
Why is my typing speed different on different sites?: Test length, the difficulty of the words, whether punctuation and capitals are included, and how each site counts errors all change the result. Comparing two sites directly is rarely meaningful; comparing your own results on one test is.