Updated 19 September 2026
TypeRacer alternatives
If you want live multiplayer typing, TypeRacer is still the best there is — so be clear about why you are leaving.
Tired of ads or the 10-saves-a-day cap → Monkeytype or Pew Pew Type, both free with no limits. Want to practise alone without racing → a single-player game or test. You lose every race → you need lessons, not a faster car. Want a younger, more casual crowd → Nitro Type.
One myth to clear up first: TypeRacer is not dead. It was rebuilt on a new codebase in September 2026.
What is actually true about TypeRacer in 2026
Most “TypeRacer alternatives” pages repeat things that are no longer true, so here is what we verified.
- It is actively developed. New codebase shipped 17 September 2026, Competitions 2.0 in February 2026, a custom-text sandbox in December 2025.
- The lobbies are not empty. We watched the live scoreboard: twenty finished races in the previous ten minutes.
- It is not full of bots. There is exactly one bot, called Typee, and it is an official feature for racing custom texts that have no human ghosts yet.
- It does not have a cheating problem. High scores trigger a CAPTCHA, and when people post accusations the community usually rebuts them.
- The operator changed. The footer went from Addicting Games, Inc. to Shockwave, LLC in mid-2025.
So the honest reasons to look elsewhere are narrower than the internet suggests.
The four real reasons
1. Ads, and the free-tier caps
The free tier carries the same programmatic ad stack as most typing sites. It also limits you to 10 saved races a day and one save per text. Removing ads costs $12 a year on the Core plan.
2. Your history now expires
In July 2025 TypeRacer stopped displaying race history older than two years, explaining that they had stored over 300 million races and it had become unsustainable. The data is not deleted and you can export it free, but full access to the archive is now a feature of the Ultimate plan at $79 a year.
If you had a decade of history, that is a real loss.
3. The averages are not what they look like
Racers quit races that are going badly, so the public average only counts the races people chose to finish. The community had to invent a separate metric, “non-quit wpm”, and track it with a browser script. One racer: “typeracer's survivorship bias inflation is also exacerbated by the fact that premium accounts can cherry pick shorter quotes and try them as often as they want.”
4. It is the worst place on the internet to be a beginner
This one matters most. You are racing real people, on real prose, and you cannot move past a typo without fixing it. A 25 wpm beginner loses every single race and spends most of it on backspace. There is no lesson, no finger map, no gentle start.
The pricing changed too. What used to be one $19.99 tier became three in late 2025: Core at $12 a year, Premium at $19, Ultimate at $79. Ad removal actually got cheaper. Archive access got more expensive.
Five alternatives
Pew Pew Type
Practice alone, with no one watching
Racing is great motivation right up until you are the slowest person in the lobby. Here the opponents are alien ships carrying words, and you type the words to shoot them down.
Nothing to lose, nobody to lose to, no ads, no account, no save limits. It is the same pressure-free practice you cannot get in a public race.
- No ads, no account, unlimited play
- Word sets follow real touch-typing order
- Difficulty scales with you, not with the room
- No multiplayer, which may be exactly what you did not want
Monkeytype
If you just want a clean solo benchmark
Free, open source, no account, no opponents, no waiting. Set the length you want and go.
Set the language to english 10k with punctuation on if you want a number comparable to your TypeRacer score. The default 200-word list will flatter you badly.
- No save caps and ads can be turned off in settings
- Far more configurable than TypeRacer
- Open source, GPL-3.0
- No multiplayer at all
- No lessons
Nitro Type
If you want racing with a younger, busier crowd
The other big multiplayer typing race. Bigger and more casual than TypeRacer, aimed mainly at school students, with cars to unlock and a free teacher portal.
Race as a guest with no account and no personal details. Be aware that lobbies fill with filler bots outside peak hours, and that progression rewards how much you race rather than how well.
- Free, no personal information required to register
- Much larger and more casual player base
- Bots in the lobbies is a persistent complaint
- Rewards playtime, not improvement
- No lessons at all
keybr
If specific keys keep costing you races
TypeRacer tells you that you typed 58 wpm. keybr tells you which letters dragged it down and then makes you practise those specifically.
If you keep losing races on the same handful of awkward keys, this fixes the cause rather than the symptom.
- Per-letter analysis and adaptive text
- Free, no account, no ads
- No competition, no game layer
TypingClub
If you lose every race
Losing every race is not a motivation problem, it is a technique problem. TypingClub is a free sequential course of around 650 lessons that teaches which finger owns which key.
Come back to TypeRacer once you can type without looking. You will enjoy it considerably more.
- Actually teaches touch typing
- Free, no account needed to start
- Ad-supported free tier, targeted per EdClub's own policy
- Speed-gated star grading
Related
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to TypeRacer?
For solo practice with no ads and no save limits, Monkeytype for measuring and a typing game such as Pew Pew Type for regular practice. For multiplayer racing specifically, Nitro Type is the only comparable option, though it is aimed at a younger audience and its lobbies include filler bots. If you lose every race, the real answer is a course such as TypingClub.
Is TypeRacer dead or abandoned?
No. It was rebuilt on an entirely new codebase in September 2026, Competitions were rebuilt in February 2026, and a custom-text sandbox launched in December 2025. The live scoreboard shows races completing continuously. The interface looks dated, but the site is actively maintained.
How much does TypeRacer cost now?
It is free to play with ads and no account. Paid plans split into three tiers in late 2025: Core at $12 a year removes ads and raises save limits, Premium at $19 a year adds avatars and profile photos, and Ultimate at $79 a year adds custom text creation, the best API access and full access to archived race data.
Why did my old TypeRacer races disappear?
In July 2025 TypeRacer stopped displaying race history older than two years, after storing more than 300 million races. The data is not deleted and can still be exported free, but browsing the full archive is now part of the Ultimate plan at $79 a year. Old ghost links to races beyond the two-year window no longer work.
Does TypeRacer have bots?
Only one, and it is official. Typee is TypeRacer's own bot ghost opponent, used so you can race custom texts that do not yet have human ghost races attached. We found no evidence that normal multiplayer races are padded with fake players, unlike Nitro Type where filler bots in quiet lobbies are a frequent complaint.
Why is my TypeRacer speed so much lower than on other sites?
Because TypeRacer uses real quotes with capitals, punctuation and proper nouns, and makes you correct every typo before continuing. Random-word tests with no punctuation and no stop-on-error produce numbers 20 to 40% higher for the same typist. The TypeRacer number is usually the more realistic one for actual writing.