Most people assume typing speeds have crept upward as screens took over daily life. The opposite has actually been happening. Researchers at Aalto University, after analyzing 136 million keystrokes from 168,000 volunteers, found that average typing speeds have been quietly declining over time, even as computer use has become universal. That single finding reframes almost every “average WPM” number floating around online, including the ones this article is about to give you.
A typing speed test measures how many words you can type correctly in a fixed window, usually expressed as words per minute (WPM), calculated as correct characters divided by five, divided by minutes elapsed. That’s the mechanical answer. The more useful answer is what your number actually means once you know the real benchmarks behind it.
The Formula Behind the Number, and Where It Gets Misused
Most typing speed test tools calculate WPM the same standardized way: every five characters, including spaces and punctuation, counts as one “word.” Type 250 correct characters in 60 seconds and you’ve hit 50 WPM. That much is consistent across nearly every test online.
Where sites diverge, often without explaining it, is gross versus net WPM. Gross WPM counts everything you typed, mistakes included. Net WPM subtracts errors, so a fast but sloppy typist can post a high gross score and a mediocre net one. If two typing speed test tools give you noticeably different numbers on the same run, this is usually why, and it’s rarely disclosed on the results screen.
What “Average” Actually Means Right Now
The 40 WPM figure gets repeated everywhere as the average, but it comes from older, smaller surveys. Aalto’s much larger dataset puts the typical range closer to 30 to 60 WPM for most people, with a smaller group reaching over 120. That’s a wider, more honest spread than the tidy “40 is average” line most typing speed test pages recycle without a source.
Age and device matter more than most articles admit. A 2019 analysis of mobile typing found the average phone typing speed was just over 36 WPM, noticeably slower than desktop keyboard typing, with accuracy also dropping. If you’re comparing your phone typing test score against a keyboard benchmark, you’re not comparing like for like, and no popular typing speed test tool flags that clearly.
The Skill Nobody Names: Rollover Typing
Here’s a genuinely underreported detail. The Aalto researchers found that fast typists overwhelmingly use what’s called rollover typing, pressing the next key before fully releasing the previous one, often by around 30 milliseconds. This isn’t something you consciously learn from a typing tutorial. It emerges naturally once your fingers stop hesitating between keys. If your typing speed test score has plateaued despite regular practice, it’s worth recording yourself typing on your phone’s slow-motion camera. If you’re lifting each finger fully before the next press, that pause, not your finger strength or keyboard quality, is very likely your actual bottleneck.
What Counts as Good, By Actual Job Requirement
“Good” typing speed isn’t one number, and honest sources say so. According to hiring and assessment data compiled by Wonderlic, administrative and customer service roles commonly expect 50 to 70 WPM, while entry-level data roles often set the bar at 60 to 80 WPM. Dispatch and other time-critical positions can require 80 to 95 WPM. None of that matches the generic “60 is good” line repeated across most typing speed test result pages, because the honest answer depends entirely on what you’re typing for.
For context on the end, the record books list Barbara Blackburn at 212 WPM using a Dvorak layout in 2005, with an older, less independently verified claim of 216 WPM from 1946. Neither number is a realistic target for anyone outside competitive typing, and treating them as a baseline, which some sites imply by listing them right next to “average” figures, sets an unfair comparison.
A Detail That Quietly Skews Every Short Test
Something I’ve noticed testing typing tools directly: shorter test durations reward burst speed rather than sustained accuracy, and that gap is bigger than most people expect. A 15-second test captures your fastest possible stretch, often inflated by a familiar opening phrase, before fatigue or an unfamiliar word slows you down. A 60-second or longer typing speed test smooths that out and tends to produce a noticeably lower, more honest number. If you’re tracking real improvement over weeks, switching test lengths between sessions will make your progress look inconsistent even if your actual skill is steadily improving, simply because you’re measuring a different thing each time.
Why Accuracy Should Come Before Speed, With a Real Number
This advice is repeated everywhere, but rarely with why. Aalto’s data confirmed that faster typists consistently make fewer errors, not more, which contradicts the assumption that speed and sloppiness go together. The mechanism is straightforward. Every corrected error costs several times the duration of the keystroke itself, since you have to notice the mistake, stop, delete, and retype. A typist making frequent small errors at high raw speed often nets out slower than a steadier typist making almost none. Chasing net WPM by fixing accuracy first, rather than typing faster and cleaning up after, is the more effective route by the study’s own numbers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 40 WPM actually still considered average?
It’s the most commonly cited figure, but larger recent research suggests the real range runs closer to 30 to 60 WPM depending on age, device, and typing background, so treat 40 as a rough midpoint rather than a precise target.
Does a typing speed test measure real-world writing speed?
Not directly. It measures how fast you can transcribe existing text, which is a different skill from composing original writing, where thinking time, not finger speed, is usually the bottleneck.
Why did my score change a lot between two tests?
Test duration, the specific passage’s difficulty, and even your posture or keyboard type can shift results by 10 WPM or more between runs, so a single test is a snapshot, not a fixed measurement.
Should I test on my phone or a physical keyboard?
Test on whichever device reflects how you’ll actually use the skill. Phone and keyboard typing speeds aren’t directly comparable, since phone typing tends to run meaningfully slower even for the same person.
Can practicing a typing speed test itself improve my typing?
Yes, but only if the test shows you new sentences each time. Repeating the same passage mainly improves memorization of that specific text rather than general typing skill.
The One Adjustment Worth Making to How You Practice
Most advice stops at “practice regularly,” which is true but not actionable. The more useful version, based on the rollover finding above, is to practice noticing whether your fingers fully lift and reset between keystrokes, especially on common letter pairs you type constantly, like “th,” “in,” or “er.” Slow down deliberately on just those pairs until your next finger is already moving before the current key releases. That single micro-adjustment, not generic daily drilling, is closer to what actually separates a 40 WPM typist from a 70 WPM one in the underlying research, and it’s rarely mentioned because it doesn’t fit neatly into a typing speed test results screen.
