Average typing speed: what's normal at every age and grade

How typing speed is measured

Typing speed is counted in words per minute (WPM), but a "word" isn't a real word. It's any five characters, including spaces and punctuation. So "I like my dog." is 14 characters, or 2.8 words. Using a fixed five-character word means a passage full of short words scores the same as a passage full of long ones.

There are two common ways to report it:

• Net WPM counts only the characters you got right. This is the number schools, employers and most charts use.
• Gross or raw WPM counts every character, mistakes included. It's always higher, and the gap shows how much errors are costing you.

Accuracy is reported separately as a percentage. A score of 40 WPM at 98 percent accuracy is far more useful than 50 WPM at 85 percent, because fixing errors in real writing takes time.

Test length and text matter too. Short tests reward bursts, easy common words run faster than real sentences, and numbers and symbols slow everyone down. Compare your scores only with tests of the same length and kind of text. You can take a free typing test from 15 seconds to 5 minutes and see all of these numbers.

Average typing speed for adults

The best data comes from a 2018 study by researchers at Aalto University and the University of Cambridge, who analyzed 136 million keystrokes from 168,960 volunteers who took an online typing test.

A few things to keep in mind. The volunteers chose to take a typing test, most were teenagers and young adults, 68 percent were from the US, and over 70 percent had taken a typing course, so this average is probably higher than for the population as a whole. The study also measured speed per sentence after participants read and memorized it, which runs a little faster than copying a long passage. That's why many sources give a lower everyday average of around 40 WPM.

For comparison, professionally trained typists studied on typewriters in the 1970s and 1980s typically reached 60 to 90 WPM.

What is a good typing speed for adults?

Using the Aalto numbers as a guide:

Jobs that test typing, such as data entry or transcription, set their own requirements, so check the job posting rather than a general chart.

Average typing speed by grade

There's no national typing standard for US schools. States, districts and typing programs set their own goals, and they don't all agree. The most common rule of thumb is about 5 WPM per grade level, starting in 3rd grade, with high accuracy. Typing.com's published guidelines follow that pattern exactly.

Typical ages assume the usual fall birthday cutoff; your child's age in a grade depends on your state. Our what grade is my child in calculator shows the exact grade for a birthdate.

Past 6th grade, published goals thin out. If you extend the same 5-WPM-per-grade pattern, a 7th grader would aim for about 35 WPM and an 8th grader for about 40, which lines up with everyday adult averages by the end of middle school. Treat those as rough targets, not standards.

Average typing speed by age

Converting the grade goals to ages gives a simple chart for kids who are getting regular typing practice:

These are goals built from the grade guidelines above, not measured averages. Kids who have never had lessons often type far slower, with two fingers, and kids who type a lot for school or games often type far faster.

Why accuracy comes first for kids

Every guideline above pairs speed with accuracy, and for good reason. The Aalto researchers found that faster typists also make fewer mistakes, while slower typists make more errors and take longer to spot and fix them. In other words, accuracy is what speed is built on.

For young typists, that means:

1. Hold 90 percent accuracy before chasing speed. If accuracy drops, slow down.
2. Learn the home row first. Every key is reached from A S D F and J K L ;, and every finger returns there.
3. Keep eyes on the screen. Looking at the keys caps speed early.
4. Practice briefly and often. Ten to fifteen minutes most days beats a long session once a week.

Our free typing practice for kids walks through the home row, top row and bottom row in short drills with a finger-color keyboard guide. Typing games for kids like falling words and home-row hero keep practice fun, and the typing test for kids uses grade-level passages so you can track progress against the chart.

When should kids start typing?

Typing.com suggests introducing the keyboard as early as kindergarten, as long as the goal is familiarity rather than technique, and starting touch typing lessons around 2nd or 3rd grade. That matches the Common Core, which expects 4th graders to type a full page in one sitting. By then, children's hands are big enough to rest comfortably on the home row, and most can read the words they're typing.

If your child is younger, letter games and short sessions are plenty. If they're older and still hunting and pecking, it's not too late; expect a slower few weeks while touch typing catches up.

How to type faster

• Find your weak keys. A missed-keys heatmap, like the one in our typing test results, shows exactly which keys to drill.
• Use real text. Practice with sentences and punctuation, not only common words, so your speed carries over to schoolwork.
• Build rhythm. An even pace with few corrections beats bursts and stalls. Watch the consistency score.
• Try rollover. Fast typists often press the next key before releasing the last one; the Aalto study found fast users doing this on 40 to 70 percent of keystrokes. It comes naturally with practice on common letter pairs.
• Test weekly, not hourly. Track a 1 minute score once a week and practice in between.

Typing programs for kids

A typing test tells you where your child is; a program teaches the skill in order. TypingClub and Typing.com are free full courses from the early grades through high school. Dance Mat Typing from BBC Bitesize is a free, playful start for ages 7 to 11. Typesy and Keyboarding Without Tears add structure, video or teacher guidance, and parent reports. Compare them on our best typing programs for kids list, or browse all typing programs for kids. Some state scholarships and ESAs can help pay for paid programs; check scholarships in your state.