Free Typing Test: measure WPM, accuracy, rhythm and per-key speed

How this test is calculated

WPM is correctly typed characters divided by five, the conventional definition of a word, scaled to one minute. Raw WPM applies the same formula to every keystroke including errors, so the gap between the two is a direct measure of what your mistakes cost. Accuracy is the share of keystrokes correct on the first attempt. Consistency is derived from the variation in the interval between successive keystrokes: a high score means a steady rhythm rather than bursts separated by stalls. A hesitation is any interval far longer than your own typical pace: the moment you stopped to find a key.

Every one of these terms is defined in the typing glossary.

What counts as a good score?

Around 40 WPM is a functional working speed and roughly the average for an adult who types regularly. 60–70 WPM is comfortably fast and enough that typing stops being the bottleneck in most work. Above 90 WPM is genuinely fast. Accuracy matters more than any of these numbers: 45 WPM at 98% accuracy beats 60 WPM at 85% for real work.

Why a test alone will not make you faster

Retaking a typing test measures the same skill repeatedly without changing it. Improvement comes from practising the specific keys and transitions that are slow, which is exactly what the per-key breakdown above identifies, and what the adaptive method turns into practice text. Two weeks of fifteen focused minutes will move this number far more than two weeks of retaking the test.

Your peak speed over a short window, often a familiar word or common bigram, as opposed to your sustained average. A large gap between burst and average speed indicates that specific keys or transitions, not general ability, are the limiting factor.