Average typing speed
The average typing speed is about 52 words per minute on a computer keyboard and about 36 WPM on a phone. Those figures come from two of the largest typing studies ever run — about 168,000 people on keyboards and 37,000 on phones.
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Typing speed percentiles (keyboard)
From the 2018 study of about 168,000 volunteers who took an online typing test. Speeds are words per minute; one word is five characters.
| Group | Typing speed |
|---|---|
| Slowest 10% | under about 26 WPM (group average about 21) |
| Average | about 52 WPM |
| Fastest 10% | over about 78 WPM (group average about 90) |
| The very fastest | 120 WPM or more |
The same study found that the average participant left about 1.2% of characters uncorrected, and that the fastest typists also made the fewest errors. Participants who had taken a typing course averaged about 54 WPM, against about 49 for those who had not.
Average typing speed on a phone
From the 2019 study of about 37,000 volunteers typing on their own phones. Phone typing averaged about 15 WPM slower than keyboard typing.
| Group | Average speed |
|---|---|
| All phone typists | about 36 WPM |
| Two thumbs | about 38 WPM |
| One finger | about 29 WPM |
| People using autocorrect | about 43 WPM |
| Age 10–19 | about 40 WPM |
| Age 50–59 | about 26 WPM |
Typing speed required for government exams
Exam requirements are set per exam and per year. These are the figures in the Staff Selection Commission's 2026 notices; key depressions per hour (KDPH) are converted to WPM at five keystrokes per word.
| Exam | Requirement | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| SSC CHSL — English typing | 35 WPM / 10,500 KDPH, 10 min | 35 WPM |
| SSC CHSL — Hindi typing | 30 WPM / 9,000 KDPH, 10 min | 30 WPM |
| SSC CGL — DEST | 2,000 key depressions in 15 min | 27 WPM |
| SSC CHSL — DEO (Part A posts) | 15,000 KDPH, 15 min | 50 WPM |
| SSC CHSL — DEO (Part B posts) | 8,000 KDPH, 15 min | 27 WPM |
Practise at exam length with corrections disabled: SSC CHSL, SSC CGL DEST, CPCT. CPCT does not publish one pass mark — each recruitment advertisement sets its own speed.
How to get faster
- Fix accuracy before speed. Net WPM subtracts errors, so a careful 45 WPM beats a sloppy 55.
- Practise little and often — fifteen minutes a day does more than two hours once a week.
- Test at full length. A one-minute burst overstates what you can sustain; five minutes or more shows your real speed.
- Keep your eyes on the text, not the keys. Looking down is the biggest single habit that holds people at average speed.
Typing in another script? There are typing tests in Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Bengali, Russian and more.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average typing speed?
About 52 words per minute on a computer keyboard. That is the mean from a 2018 study of about 168,000 volunteers. On a phone the average is about 36 WPM, from a 2019 study of about 37,000 volunteers.
Is 40 WPM a good typing speed?
It is a little below the 52 WPM average from the largest keyboard study, but well above the slowest 10% of typists, who averaged about 21 WPM. With high accuracy, 40 WPM is a workable everyday speed and clears the English typing requirement of 35 WPM in the SSC CHSL exam.
What typing speed puts you in the top 10%?
About 78 WPM or more on a computer keyboard. In the 2018 study, the fastest 10% of participants averaged about 90 WPM.
Is typing on a phone slower than on a keyboard?
Yes, by about 15 WPM on average. Phone typists averaged 36 WPM. Typing with two thumbs was faster than with one finger, about 38 WPM against 29.
How is WPM calculated?
One word is counted as five characters, including spaces. Gross WPM is characters typed divided by five, per minute. Net WPM subtracts errors, which is why accuracy matters as much as raw speed.
Sources
- Dhakal, Feit, Kristensson & Oulasvirta. Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes. CHI 2018.
- Palin, Feit, Kim, Kristensson & Oulasvirta. How do People Type on Mobile Devices? Observations from a Study with 37,000 Volunteers. MobileHCI 2019.
- Staff Selection Commission, Notice of Combined Higher Secondary (10+2) Level Examination, 2026, and Notice of Combined Graduate Level Examination, 2026 — ssc.gov.in.