Typing Speed Test

What this test measures

You are shown one English sentence and asked to copy it exactly. The clock starts when you type your first character and stops the moment the amount you have typed reaches the length of the sentence. Characters you have already typed turn green when they match and red with an underline when they do not, and the next character to type is highlighted. One of eight sentences is picked at random, and the same sentence can come up twice in a row, so compare results only between sentences of similar length. The test gives you a number to track your own practice. It is not a diagnostic and it is not an official qualification.

The three numbers and how each is calculated

Typing speed has no single universal definition, so it helps to know exactly what is being counted. This page reports the following, all computed from the characters in the sentence (letters, spaces and punctuation all count as one character each).

• CPM (characters per minute) = characters in the sentence / minutes taken. A sentence of 86 characters finished in 24 seconds is 86 / 0.4 = 215 CPM.
• WPM (words per minute) = CPM / 5. By the usual typing convention a "word" is five characters, including the space after it, so WPM does not depend on how long the actual words happen to be. The same 215 CPM is 43 WPM.
• Accuracy = characters that match the sentence in the same position / total characters in the sentence. 84 matching characters out of 86 is 97.7%.
• Accuracy-adjusted WPM = WPM x accuracy. It is a simple way to show that speed built on mistakes is worth less: 43 WPM at 97.7% becomes about 42.0.

These are this page's own definitions, chosen to be simple and consistent. Other programs may subtract uncorrected errors differently, count only correct words, or reset the timer at different moments, so a number from here will not match a number from another program exactly. Compare like with like.

How accuracy is judged, and what it hides

When you finish, your text and the sentence are compared character by character at the same positions. Two consequences follow. First, a mistake you corrected before finishing leaves no trace in the accuracy figure; only the final text is judged, although the time you spent fixing it is part of your speed. Second, because comparison is by position, one skipped or doubled character pushes every following character out of line, and most of the rest of the sentence can be counted wrong. If your accuracy suddenly collapses, look for a missing or extra letter or a missing space early in the sentence. Capital letters and punctuation must match exactly as well, so "Mistakes" and "mistakes" are different.

How the timing works, and where it is imprecise

• Start: the timer starts on your first input event, so the time you spend reading the sentence before typing is not counted. On a very short sentence this makes the result slightly flattering.
• End: the test finishes as soon as the number of characters typed equals the length of the sentence. You cannot go back and fix the last characters afterwards, so correct typos while you are still typing.
• Sentence length: with only 70 to 93 characters, a single hesitation or typo moves the result noticeably. A difference of a few WPM between two runs is ordinary variation.
• Averages: this page does not publish average speeds or grade tables, because it has no verified source for them. Your own earlier results are the useful comparison.
• Storage: your best accuracy-adjusted WPM is kept in this browser's local storage under the key pib_typing_en_best. It is never sent to a server, it is not shared between devices, and clearing site data removes it.

Reference table 1: the sentences used by the test

These values are counted from the actual sentences when the page is built. The characters-per-word column shows why WPM is defined with a fixed five characters: real words in these sentences run between roughly 4.7 and 5.8 characters, counting the space.

Reference table 2: converting CPM to WPM

This is a direct conversion with the five-character rule, useful when one program reports characters and another reports words.

Worked examples

Example 1. Sentence 4 has 86 characters. You finish it in 24 seconds with 2 wrong characters. CPM = 86 / (24 / 60) = 215. WPM = 215 / 5 = 43. Accuracy = (86 - 2) / 86 = 97.7%. Accuracy-adjusted WPM = 43 x 0.977 = 42.0.

Example 2. Sentence 1 has 70 characters. Finishing it in 21 seconds gives 70 / (21 / 60) = 200 CPM, which is 40 WPM. Finish it in half the time and the speed doubles. Time and speed are inversely proportional.

Example 3: working backwards from a goal. To type sentence 4 (86 characters) at 30 WPM you need 34.4 seconds. At 40 WPM it is 25.8 seconds, at 60 WPM 17.2 seconds and at 80 WPM 12.9 seconds. If you have a target in mind, convert it to a time per sentence and practice against the clock.

Common problems

• Autocorrect and predictive text. Phone keyboards and some browser extensions change what you typed, which distorts accuracy. The test is designed for a physical keyboard.
• Pasting. Pasting is blocked, because a pasted sentence would finish in almost no time and produce a meaningless number.
• Caps Lock and the wrong layout. An accidental Caps Lock turns most letters red. Also check that your keyboard layout is the one you expect, because punctuation moves between layouts.
• Substituted characters. The sentences contain only plain letters, spaces, commas and periods. If a browser extension or text-replacement tool swaps any of them for look-alike symbols, the characters will not match.
• Chasing speed while making errors. Backspacing and retyping costs more time than typing carefully, so the fastest run is rarely the one with the most mistakes.

Practising effectively

The common advice is accuracy first, speed second. Rest your fingers on the home row, learn to type without looking down, and increase your pace only to the point where mistakes stay rare. Short, frequent sessions tend to beat one long one. When the same mistake keeps happening, such as a particular letter pair or two letters typed by the same finger in a row, isolate it and drill it on its own. Posture, desk height and keyboard feel matter too, since fatigue shows up as errors before it shows up as slowness. For the physical side, see the guides on keyboard layouts and switch types elsewhere on the site.

Using your result

1. Run the test three to five times and use the average of the accuracy-adjusted WPM as your baseline.
2. If the adjusted WPM is much lower than raw WPM, work on accuracy before speed.
3. Repeat under the same conditions each week, with the same keyboard and similar sentences, to see real change.
4. Do not use the figure as a hiring or certification claim. Those use their own methods and rules.

Related tools

• Reaction Time Test for measuring how fast you respond to a signal
• Word Counter for counting the words and characters in your own text
• Multiplication Table Practice for another short, repeatable drill

Frequently Asked Questions