3 minute typing test

The largest study of typing speed measured 168,960 volunteers copying English sentences on computer keyboards^[1]. Their average was 51.56 words per minute. Because this test also has you copy English sentences, a run on a computer keyboard is set beside that study more closely than the single-word test can be: we say about how many in ten of those people you were faster than. A study of 37,370 people typing on phones found an average of 36.2^[2].

On a phone's screen keyboard, or in a run the keyboard helped with, we only say roughly where you are, or compare nothing. Over three minutes most people type a little slower than in a short burst, so a result here is usually a few words per minute below a fifteen-second run.

The text was written for this site in plain English. It has everyday words, a few longer ones, commas and full stops, so it is closer to typing a real letter or report than a row of single words.

We read what you type from the text box itself, so any keyboard layout works. Each word is judged when you finish it with a space; the last word of the text counts as soon as it is typed correctly.

A short burst mostly shows how quickly your fingers can move. Three minutes adds steadiness: small hesitations, a mistake you stop to fix, a word you have to look at twice. That is why office and data-entry tests often take three or five minutes rather than one. If your three-minute result is much lower than your one-minute result, steadiness is what to practise.

• Read a few words ahead while you type the current one.
• Do not stop to fix a word you have already finished: it is crossed out either way.
• Keep a steady rhythm instead of short fast bursts.