What is WPM? How typing speed is calculated, and what counts as fast

The WPM formula

wpm      = correct characters / 5 / minutes
raw wpm  = all keystrokes    / 5 / minutes
accuracy = (keystrokes − errors) / keystrokes × 100
cpm      = wpm × 5

Worked example. In a 60-second test you press 420 keys and 12 of them are wrong. Raw WPM is 420 ÷ 5 ÷ 1 = 84. Correct characters are 408, so net WPM is 408 ÷ 5 ÷ 1 = 81.6, shown as 82. Accuracy is 408 ÷ 420 = 97.1%. keyduelo rounds WPM to a whole number and accuracy to one decimal.

Two details decide how strict a test is. First, whether the timer starts on page load or on the first keystroke (keyduelo: first keystroke). Second, what happens to an error you fix with Backspace: on keyduelo the corrected position counts as correct for WPM, but the error stays in the accuracy count, so a typo always costs you something.

Why five characters is a word

Real words vary from one letter to a dozen, so counting them directly would make a text full of short words look faster than a text full of long ones. Typing tests inherited from the typewriter era a fixed unit, the standard word of five characters, spaces and punctuation included. Monkeytype, TypeRacer, 10FastFingers and keyduelo all use it, which is why results across word-based tests are at least in the same currency.

Net WPM, raw WPM and accuracy

What is an average typing speed?

The largest public study of typing on computer keyboards, Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes (Dhakal, Feit, Kristensson and Oulasvirta, CHI 2018), measured 168,000 volunteers transcribing sentences online. The average speed was 51.56 WPM with a standard deviation of about 20 WPM, the average uncorrected error rate was 1.17%, and the fastest typists reached 120 WPM or more. The study also found that faster typists make fewer errors and use rollover, pressing the next key before releasing the previous one, far more often. The dataset is published by Aalto University.

Why your WPM changes between sites

• Text type: random common words (keyduelo, Monkeytype) read faster than quotes with names and punctuation (TypeRacer) or code.
• Error rule: some tests let a wrong character through and penalize it; others block you until you fix it, which lowers WPM and raises accuracy.
• Duration: 15-second results run higher than 60-second ones because you do not tire.
• Timer start: on the first keystroke versus on page load.
• Device: on-screen keyboards with autocorrect are not comparable with physical keyboards.

keyduelo follows the Monkeytype conventions, so numbers between the two are close; numbers from quote-based races will look lower. Try it yourself on the free typing test.

How to improve your WPM

1. Fix accuracy first. Get to 97% before chasing speed; errors cost twice.
2. Touch type from the home row. Eyes on the screen, all ten fingers, no hunting.
3. Let keys overlap. Rollover typing was one of the strongest markers of fast typists in the CHI 2018 data.
4. Train the common pairs. Letter pairs typed with different hands or fingers predicted speed better than letter repetitions in the same study.
5. Short, frequent sessions. A few 15-second tests a day beat one long weekly session.
6. Measure the same way every time, then race friends for motivation.

Typing speed vocabulary

• WPM: words per minute, with a word defined as five characters.
• CPM: characters per minute, equal to WPM × 5.
• Net vs raw WPM: correct characters only versus every keystroke.
• Accuracy: share of keystrokes that were correct.
• Uncorrected error rate: errors still present in the final text, the measure used in the CHI 2018 study (average 1.17%).
• KSPC: keystrokes per character; 1.0 means no corrections at all.
• IKI: inter-key interval, the time between two keystrokes.
• Rollover: pressing the next key before releasing the previous one.