Typing
10 minute typing test
10 minutes
Type the word in the white box, then a space. The clock starts with your first letter.Type the word in the white box, then a space. The clock starts with your first letter.
About this 10 minute typing test
This 10 minute typing test is a test of stamina. You copy a long original text about how the weather works, with its capital letters and punctuation, for ten minutes or until you reach its end. Few people keep their best speed that long: hands tire, attention wanders, and small mistakes add up. That is exactly what a long test shows, which is why some typing exams use this length. The clock starts with your first letter. Your result is your speed in words per minute; the test is free, needs no account, and your results stay in this browser.
How the test works
- Find a comfortable position: ten minutes is a long time.
- Tap or click the box under the text and type the word in the white box, then a space. Your first letter starts the clock.
- Keep going until the time is up or the text ends. You can press Stop or Escape at any time.
- Read your words per minute, then look at how your speed changed over the run.
What is a good result?
The study we compare with measured 168,960 volunteers copying English sentences on computer keyboards; their average was 51.56 words per minute[1]. They typed much shorter texts than this one, so a ten-minute result on a computer keyboard is placed among them with that in mind: most people are a few words per minute slower over ten minutes than over one. On phones, a study of 37,370 people found an average of 36.2[2].
| What | Keyboards | Phones |
|---|---|---|
| People measured | 168,960 | 37,370 |
| Average, words per minute | 51.56 | 36.2 |
| Spread (standard deviation) | 20.2 | not published |
On a screen keyboard we only say roughly where you are. Compare a ten-minute result above all with your own earlier ten-minute runs: that shows whether your stamina is growing.
How we measure
The text was written for this site. It explains a real subject in plain English, with longer sentences and more varied words than the shorter tests, which is closer to typing a report or an essay.
Each letter is read from the text box as it arrives, so any keyboard layout works. Nothing is sent anywhere while you type: the whole test runs in your browser.
Why speed drops over ten minutes
In the first minute most people type close to their best. After that, small things build up: the hands and shoulders tense, the eyes lose their place in the text, and a mistake fixed costs a few seconds each time. A drop of a few words per minute is normal. A large drop after the first few minutes usually means tension or posture, not a lack of skill.
Training for long typing
- Relax your shoulders and keep your wrists free; tension is the first thing that slows a long run.
- Look slightly ahead in the text so you never have to search for your place.
- Take short breaks in daily work, so that long typing feels normal.
- Repeat this test now and then and watch your ten-minute result rather than your best short burst.
Questions
Is ten minutes too long for a typing test?
For a quick check it is. For showing the speed you can keep up for a whole piece of work, and for some typing exams, it is the right length.
What if I need a break?
Press Stop. The run is not saved, and you can start again whenever you like.
Why is my ten-minute result lower than my one-minute result?
Almost everyone slows down over a long run. Your ten-minute result is a fairer picture of how fast you type a long piece of work.
Sources
- Dhakal, V., Feit, A. M., Kristensson, P. O., & Oulasvirta, A. (2018). Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes. Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '18).doi:10.1145/3173574.3174220
n = 168,960; Self-selected volunteers from a typing-test site: mean age 24.5, 68% from the US, 85% native English speakers, 72% had taken a typing course - Palin, K., Feit, A. M., Kim, S., Kristensson, P. O., & Oulasvirta, A. (2019). How do People Type on Mobile Devices? Observations from a Study with 37,000 Volunteers. Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI '19).doi:10.1145/3338286.3340120
n = 37,370; Volunteers who took an online typing test on a mobile device; most from the US, 56% native English speakers