Updated 19 September 2026
What is the average typing speed?
The average typing speed is about 40 words per minute at roughly 92–95% accuracy. Professional typists work at 65–75 wpm. Anything above 100 wpm is competitive territory, reached by well under one percent of people.
People who never learned touch typing — the majority — usually sit between 25 and 35 wpm, because two-finger typing has a hard ceiling no amount of practice removes.
Those numbers get repeated everywhere without much context, so here is the context. Speed depends far more on method than on talent, age or how long you have owned a computer. A 55-year-old who learned touch typing at school will comfortably beat a 19-year-old who has used a keyboard daily for a decade and never learned where the keys are. Hours at a keyboard do not teach you to type; deliberately not looking at it does.
Typing speed ranges, and what each one feels like
| Words per minute | Who types at this speed | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 0–20 | Two-finger hunt and peck, eyes on the keyboard the whole time | Slower than handwriting |
| 25–35 | Most people who never learned to touch type | Below average |
| 40 | The typical adult | Average |
| 50–60 | Someone who types for a living and learned properly | Above average |
| 60–70 | Comfortably fast — the keyboard stops being the bottleneck | Good |
| 70–90 | Fast. Noticeably quicker than everyone in the room | Top few percent |
| 90–110 | Very fast, usually deliberate practice rather than accident | Rare |
| 110+ | Competitive typists | Top fraction of a percent |
The interesting threshold is around 40 wpm. Below it, the keyboard is slower than your thinking and you can feel yourself waiting for your hands. Above about 60, the keyboard stops being the bottleneck entirely and speed gains stop mattering much — which is why the jump from 30 to 60 changes your working life and the jump from 80 to 110 mostly does not.
Average typing speed by profession
These are the working ranges people in each job tend to land in, not certification requirements.
| Role | Typical range | Why |
|---|---|---|
| General office work | 40–55 wpm | Enough. Nobody is measuring, and most of the day is not typing. |
| Administrative and data entry | 50–70 wpm | Often has an actual hiring threshold, commonly 45–60 wpm with high accuracy. |
| Writers and journalists | 55–75 wpm | Fast enough that drafting keeps up with thinking. |
| Software developers | 50–80 wpm | Raw speed matters less than symbol fluency; the bottleneck is thinking, not typing. |
| Transcriptionists | 75–90 wpm | Has to exceed natural speech, which runs at roughly 130–150 words per minute. |
| Court reporters | 200+ wpm | Not a normal keyboard — a stenotype machine types whole syllables per stroke. |
Does typing speed change with age?
Less than people assume, and not in the direction they assume. What changes with age is exposure to formal typing instruction, not physical capability. People who went through school when typing was taught as a subject tend to touch type; people who learned on a phone and picked up keyboards informally often never did, whatever their age.
Physical decline is a real but late and small factor. For the vast majority of adults, the difference between 30 wpm and 70 wpm is entirely explained by whether they learned to use ten fingers without looking.
What about accuracy?
A speed figure without an accuracy figure is meaningless, and this is the part most people skip. Typical accuracy sits around 92–95%. Good typists hold 97–99%.
At 95% accuracy you are making one mistake every twenty words, and each one costs you three actions: the wrong keystroke, the backspace, the retype. That is why a steady 55 wpm at 98% produces more finished work per hour than a frantic 75 wpm at 88%. If you are choosing what to improve, improve accuracy. Speed follows it; it does not work the other way round.
How these numbers are measured. One word equals five characters including the space, which is the standard convention. Net WPM subtracts errors; raw WPM does not. When a source quotes a typing speed without saying which it used, assume net, and assume the accuracy was not great.
Find out where you actually are
Guessing your speed is unreliable in both directions — people who hunt and peck usually overestimate, and fast typists usually underestimate. The typing test takes a minute and also tells you which keys are costing you.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the average typing speed?
About 40 words per minute at roughly 92 to 95 percent accuracy. Professional typists work at 65 to 75 wpm, and above 100 wpm is competitive territory reached by well under one percent of people. People who never learned touch typing usually sit between 25 and 35 wpm.
Is 60 wpm a good typing speed?
Yes. 60 wpm is comfortably above the average of 40 and is past the point where the keyboard slows your thinking down. For any normal office or writing job, 60 wpm at high accuracy is more than enough, and further speed gains produce very little practical benefit.
Is 30 wpm slow?
It is below average but extremely common. 25 to 35 wpm is the typical range for someone who types with two to four fingers and looks at the keyboard. It is also the range with the most to gain: learning touch typing usually doubles it within a few months.
What is the average typing speed for data entry jobs?
Data entry and administrative roles typically expect 50 to 70 wpm, and many set a hiring threshold around 45 to 60 wpm with accuracy above 95 percent. Accuracy is usually weighted more heavily than speed, because a fast typist who makes errors creates work rather than saving it.
How fast can a human type?
The practical ceiling on a standard QWERTY keyboard is around 150 to 200 wpm in short bursts, and only a handful of people sustain anything close to that. Court reporters exceed 200 wpm but use a stenotype machine, which types whole syllables per stroke rather than individual letters.
Does typing speed decrease with age?
Much less than people assume. The main difference between age groups is whether formal typing instruction was part of their schooling, not physical capability. Someone who learned touch typing at fifty will out-type someone who has hunted and pecked since they were ten.