Average typing speed

The short answer

Average typing speed is usually quoted somewhere between 40 and 60 words per minute for adults typing English on a physical keyboard. The most substantial public measurement comes from a 2018 study, Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes (Dhakal and colleagues, CHI 2018), which reported an average of roughly 52 WPM in a transcription task.

That sentence carries three caveats: the study measured copying text rather than composing it, it involved people who chose to take an online test, and it counted English. A different task, language or keyboard moves the number.

How typing speed is measured

Typing studies usually measure copying: a participant reads text and types it, with errors counted against the score. Net speed subtracts mistakes; gross speed counts every keystroke. Online tests mostly report net speed over a fixed time, which is a slightly different number from a study that counts a finished passage.

Real work adds thinking and editing time, and neither appears in a typing test. That is why a person who scores 60 WPM in a test may produce far fewer words per minute of finished writing. The test measures the transcription part of the job, not the whole job.

Typical ranges

Treat these bands as a rough guide rather than a published standard. They describe adults on a physical keyboard, typing familiar English words.

Under 30 WPM: still hunting for keys. 30 to 40 WPM: below average but perfectly usable. 40 to 50 WPM: the common working range. 50 to 60 WPM: above average. 60 to 80 WPM: fast. 80 to 100 WPM: very fast. Over 100 WPM: competitive, usually years of deliberate practice or a lifetime of daily typing.

Students and office workers often sit between 40 and 60 WPM. Programmers are not automatically faster: they type symbols and rare words as well as prose, and their speed on code is usually lower than their speed on plain text.

Why one average hides a lot

Self-selection: people who take typing tests tend to be interested in typing, which pushes the measured average above the population as a whole.

Task: copying a word list is easier than composing a sentence, which is easier than typing an address or a block of source code.

Language and layout: German compounds and Turkish dotted letters behave differently from English words, and AZERTY or QWERTZ layouts move common letters to different fingers.

Equipment and setting: a laptop keyboard, a mechanical keyboard and a phone all produce different numbers, and a noisy office produces different numbers again.

The test format: a fixed-time test and a fixed-word test reward different things. Time tests reward a strong start, while word tests reward finishing cleanly, and the same typist can score differently on each.

How to compare your own results

1. Use the same test length, language and punctuation setting each time.
2. Warm up with one easy run and set the result aside.
3. Take three runs and use their average rather than your best score.
4. Track a weekly average; single scores move by several WPM from day to day.
5. Judge progress in months. A rise from 45 to 55 WPM is a real improvement even if it takes a year.

What speed do you actually need?

Many job listings that mention typing ask for 40 to 60 WPM, and data entry or transcription roles often ask for more. These are requirements written by employers, not research findings, but they are a useful practical benchmark.

For everyday email and notes, 40 WPM is comfortable and 60 WPM is quick. For live transcription or chat support, 70 WPM and above is a practical target. Above 100 WPM is competitive territory, and speed records reach far beyond it.

Accuracy matters as much as speed in all of these settings. A fast typist who leaves errors behind creates work for someone else.