Typing Speed Calculator

Enter the number of characters you typed, how long it took and how many mistakes you left uncorrected, and this calculator gives your gross WPM, net WPM, accuracy and characters per minute. It is useful for scoring a typing test you ran yourself, checking a speed requirement on a job application, or tracking practice over weeks.

Characters include spaces and punctuation — the figure most word processors call "characters (with spaces)". You can get it from the word and character counter by pasting in what you typed. Count only uncorrected errors: mistakes you fixed with backspace already cost you time, which shows up in a lower gross speed.

Results from different typing websites rarely match exactly, because each counts errors and accuracy slightly differently. Compare your scores with the same method each time.

The five-character word and the one-word-per-error penalty are the conventions used in text-entry research and by most typing tests. Accuracy here is word-based: errors as a share of the standard words typed. Some tests instead report character accuracy (correct keystrokes ÷ total keystrokes), which usually reads higher. For data entry work, speed is often given as keystrokes per hour (KPH), which is simply characters per minute × 60.

Speeds vary widely with the text, keyboard and test length. These ranges are typical net speeds on plain English prose.

• Gross WPM is raw speed: every keystroke counts, right or wrong.
• Net WPM is what employers usually mean. Each uncorrected error removes one word from the total, so 5 errors in a 1-minute test cost 5 WPM, while 5 errors in a 5-minute test cost only 1 WPM.
• Accuracy below about 95% usually means you will gain more by slowing down than by pushing speed, because corrections and penalties eat the extra pace.
• CPM (characters per minute) is gross WPM × 5, and is the unit some European tests and data-entry roles use. Court reporters and captioners use stenotype machines and are measured on a different, much higher scale.

If you are writing material for others to read rather than type, the Flesch reading ease calculator measures how easy it is to read.

Use unfamiliar prose, not a passage you have practiced. Time at least 3 minutes — 1-minute tests overstate speed because there is no time for fatigue or a tricky passage. Do not correct as you go if you want a pure net-speed test; otherwise allow corrections and count only errors that remain. Count characters including spaces, divide the time into minutes (2 min 30 s = 2.5), and run two or three tests to take an average.