Average Typing Speed Chart
Is 40 words per minute good? It depends on what you need it for. This page puts the usual reference numbers in one place: speed levels, what employers ask for, typical speeds by age and by typing method, and a calculator that shows how long a text takes at your speed.
How long will it take to type?
- Time at your speed
- 25 min
- Your level
- Average
A word counts as five characters including spaces, the way typing tests measure it. Thinking time, corrections and breaks are not included.
Typing speed levels
These are the levels used across fasttypes. They describe net speed on ordinary text, with accuracy of about 95 percent or better.
| Level | Speed | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | under 30 WPM | Still looking at the keyboard. Learning correct finger placement makes the biggest difference. |
| Average | 30-45 WPM | Typical for most adults. Fine for email and everyday messaging. |
| Good | 45-60 WPM | Comfortable for most office work and many job typing tests. |
| Fast | 60-80 WPM | Faster than most people. Typing is rarely what slows you down. |
| Professional | 80-100 WPM | The range of transcriptionists, data entry specialists and other professional typists. |
| Elite | 100+ WPM | Competitive typists, only a small fraction of people get here. |
Typing speed by job
Requirements differ from one employer to the next, so treat these as the ranges you will commonly meet in job adverts, not as fixed rules. Where a test is used, an accuracy threshold, often 95 percent or more, nearly always comes with it.
| Role | Common requirement | What matters |
|---|---|---|
| General office and administration | 40-60 WPM | Enough to keep up with email and documents through the day. |
| Data entry (text) | 45-70 WPM | Accuracy is weighted as heavily as speed. |
| Data entry (numbers) | 8,000-10,000 KPH | Measured in keystrokes per hour on the number pad. |
| Customer support and live chat | 40-60 WPM | Typing while reading a customer's history, often in several chats at once. |
| Secretarial, legal and medical typing | 60-80 WPM | Long documents with specialist vocabulary. |
| Transcription and captioning | 60-90 WPM | Sustained typing from audio for hours. |
| Programming, writing and design | No set requirement | Past about 50 WPM, thinking is the limit, not typing. |
| Court reporting | 200+ WPM | Done on a stenotype machine that writes whole syllables at once, not on an ordinary keyboard. |
Typical speed by how you write
How you type matters more than how old you are. The ranges below are typical for adults.
| Method | Typical speed |
|---|---|
| Handwriting | 15-25 WPM |
| Keyboard, two fingers, looking at the keys | 20-40 WPM |
| Phone, two thumbs | 35-40 WPM |
| Keyboard, self-taught with several fingers | 35-55 WPM |
| Keyboard, touch typing | 50-80 WPM |
| Keyboard, professional typist | 80-100+ WPM |
| Speaking | 120-150 WPM |
Typing speed by age
Speed follows practice far more than age. A child who has learned the keyboard and types regularly can pass an adult who never trained. The ranges below are rough guides for people who type regularly, not targets.
| Group | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Children learning the keyboard, aged 7 to 10 | 10-25 WPM |
| Early teens who type for school | 25-40 WPM |
| Older teens and students | 35-50 WPM |
| Adults who never trained | 35-45 WPM |
| Adults who touch type | 50-70 WPM |
How to read these numbers
Scores are only comparable when the tests are alike. A one minute test on simple, common words gives a higher figure than a five minute test with punctuation, capitals and numbers. Some tests count mistakes toward speed and some do not. Before you compare your result with a requirement, check the length of the test, the kind of text and whether the figure is gross or net speed.
What moves you up a level
The largest single step is learning to type without looking at the keys. After that, short daily practice beats occasional long sessions, accuracy comes before speed, and varied text beats the same paragraph repeated. Many people who practise fifteen minutes a day move up a level within two or three months.