Typing Speed Calculator

Took a typing test somewhere else, or timed yourself copying a page? Enter what you typed and how long it took, and this calculator turns it into the standard numbers, so you can compare results from different tests.

Your results

Enter the characters and the time to see your results.

How each number is calculated

A word is counted as five characters, spaces included. Gross WPM is the characters you typed divided by five, divided by the minutes. Net WPM subtracts one word for each uncorrected error per minute. Characters per minute is the characters divided by the minutes, and keystrokes per hour is that figure times sixty. Accuracy is the share of characters that were not errors.

Which number to use

Use net WPM when a job posting or a school sets a requirement, because that is the figure most of them mean. Use characters per minute or keystrokes per hour when a posting quotes those units, which is common for data entry. Gross WPM is useful only next to accuracy: a high gross speed with many errors is slower in practice than a lower clean one.

Frequently asked questions

How do I count the characters I typed?
Paste the text into any editor that shows a character count including spaces. If you only know the number of words, multiply it by five for a close estimate.
What counts as an uncorrected error?
A wrong, missing or extra character that is still in the finished text. Mistakes you fixed with Backspace are not counted here, although they cost you time.
Why is my result different from the score on a test site?
Sites differ in how they count errors and whether corrected mistakes lower accuracy. On fasttypes only correctly typed characters count toward speed, which gives a result close to net WPM.
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