Most articles answering this question quote the same number: the average typing speed is about 40 words per minute. We have 9,820 typing tests recorded on this site over the past year, so we checked.
The median was 25 WPM. Not 40.
That gap is the interesting part, and it changes what "good" should mean for you.
What the data actually shows
Every standard typing test taken on keyboardingtest.com between 1 September 2025 and 24 August 2026, after removing runs shorter than 30 seconds:
| Percentile | WPM | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | 14 | Slower than 90% of tests |
| 25th | 20 | Bottom quarter |
| 50th (median) | 25 | The typical result |
| 75th | 32 | Faster than three quarters |
| 90th | 38 | Top tenth |
| 95th | 42 | Top twentieth |
| 99th | 46 | Top 1% |
Mean: 25.9 WPM. Mean accuracy: 91.1%.
Grouped into bands, the shape is clearer:
| Speed | Share of tests |
|---|---|
| Under 20 WPM | 23.9% |
| 20–29 WPM | 44.6% |
| 30–39 WPM |
Accuracy matters more than the headline number
This is the finding that surprised us most, because it contradicts what beginners assume. People often believe they are trading accuracy for speed. The data says the opposite:
| Speed band | Mean accuracy | Share hitting 95%+ |
|---|---|---|
| Under 20 WPM | 88.4% | 69.5% |
| 20–29 WPM | 89.9% | 72.1% |
| 30–39 WPM | 95.0% | 83.1% |
| 40–49 WPM | 94.9% | 79.9% |
Accuracy rises with speed across the bulk of the distribution. Faster typists are not racing past their mistakes — they are typing more fluently, and fluency produces both speed and precision at the same time.
The practical consequence: if your accuracy is below 95%, that is the thing to fix. Speed tends to follow. Deliberately slowing down to eliminate errors builds the habit that later produces a higher number, which is why most structured typing courses drill accuracy first.
A note on why this matters for a test result specifically: a fast run with poor accuracy is not a good result. Our own leaderboard only ranks runs at 95% accuracy or better, for exactly this reason.
How this was measured
Being explicit, since a statistic without a method is just a claim:
- Source: every result recorded by the standard typing test on this site.
- Window: 1 September 2025 to 24 August 2026.
- Sample: 9,820 tests after filtering.
- runs under 30 seconds removed, and runs without recorded keystroke data removed. Results are validated server-side against the keystrokes actually recorded during the run, so a reported speed has to be physically reachable from the typing that produced it.