What is a Good Typing Speed?
The truth is, a good typing speed depends entirely on your goals. If you want to be a government clerk, you need a different speed than someone aiming to be a medical transcriptionist. Even if your current speed impresses your coworkers, it may still fall short of a high-stakes data entry assessment.
This guide gives you the exact benchmarks — by skill level, by age, by job role — so you know precisely where you stand and what you need to hit next.
The Speed Tier Breakdown
Here is how typing speeds rank across the professional landscape:
- Below 30 WPM — below average, will not meet most job requirements
- 30 to 40 WPM — average adult speed, sufficient for basic everyday computer use
- 40 to 55 WPM — good, meets most general office and government job requirements
- 55 to 70 WPM — strong, competitive for administrative, data entry, and executive roles
- 70 to 90 WPM — fast, required for advanced transcription, legal, and captioning work
- 90 WPM and above — excellent, top tier for any professional typing role
- 120 WPM and above — elite, top 1% of all typists globally
What is the Average Typing Speed?
The average typing speed for an adult is 40 WPM with approximately 92% accuracy. This figure shifts significantly based on context:
| Group | Average WPM |
|---|---|
| Beginner / new typist | 20–30 WPM |
| Average adult | 38–42 WPM |
| Office worker | 45–55 WPM |
| Professional typist | 65–75 WPM |
| Top 1% of typists | 120+ WPM |
| World record (sustained) | 212 WPM |
The 40 WPM average reflects casual everyday typists — not job applicants who have been tested. If you are preparing for an employer assessment, you should be targeting above average, not at it.
Is My Typing Speed Good? Common WPM Questions Answered
Is 40 WPM Good?
For daily tasks — yes. 40 WPM is more than enough for everyday business communication, emails, and basic document work.
For a job test — it depends. 40 WPM meets the minimum for government clerk and some customer service roles. It falls below the threshold for data entry, administrative assistant, virtual assistant, legal, and medical roles.
If your goal is to pass an employer typing test, 40 WPM is a starting point — not a finishing point.
Is 50 WPM Good?
Yes — for most office jobs. 50 WPM with 95% accuracy clears the requirement for the majority of administrative, government, and general office positions.
For specialized roles — not quite. Data entry clerks are typically expected to reach 60 to 65 WPM. Legal secretaries need 65 to 75 WPM. Medical transcriptionists need 65 to 80 WPM. Use 50 WPM as your floor, not your ceiling, if you are targeting those roles.
Is 60 WPM Good?
Yes — 60 WPM is genuinely good. It puts you above the average adult and meets or exceeds the requirement for most office, administrative, government, and customer service roles. Historically, 60 WPM was the standard minimum for secretarial work, and it remains a meaningful benchmark today.
Is 70 WPM Good?
Yes — 70 WPM is fast. It places you in the upper tier of office typists and comfortably above the threshold for virtually all general business roles. At 70 WPM you are competitive for most specialized roles including virtual assistant, legal support, and entry-level medical transcription.
Is 80 WPM Good?
Yes — 80 WPM is excellent. Fewer than 15% of typists consistently reach this speed. At 80 WPM you comfortably meet the requirements for every general professional typing role, including medical transcription and legal secretary positions.
What is the Top 1% Typing Speed?
The top 1% of typists type at 120 WPM or above with high accuracy. For context:
| Percentile | WPM Threshold |
|---|---|
| Top 50% | Above 40 WPM |
| Top 25% | Above 55 WPM |
| Top 10% | Above 75 WPM |
| Top 5% | Above 90 WPM |
| Top 1% | Above 120 WPM |
If you type at 60 WPM, you are already faster than the majority of adults. If you type at 80 WPM, you are in the top 15%.
Good Typing Speed by Job Role
Requirements vary significantly by role. Use this table to find the benchmark for your target position.
| Job Role | Minimum WPM | Accuracy Required |
|---|---|---|
| Medical Transcriptionist | 65–80 WPM | 98% |
| Legal Secretary | 60–75 WPM | 98% |
| Virtual Assistant | 55–65 WPM | 97% |
| Executive Assistant | 55–65 WPM | 97% |
| Data Entry Clerk | 45–65 WPM | 97–98% |
| Administrative Assistant | 50–60 WPM | 97% |
| General Office / Admin | 40–55 WPM | 95% |
| USPS Postal Worker | 40–50 WPM | 95% |
| Customer Service | 35–50 WPM | 90–95% |
| Federal Government Clerk | 40 WPM | 95% |
| 911 Dispatcher | 35–45 WPM | 95% |
Important: These are net WPM requirements — your score after error deductions. A typist who hits 65 gross WPM but makes frequent errors may score below 55 net WPM, which can fail a data entry assessment.
Practice with content that matches your target role:
| Job Role | Practice Test |
|---|---|
| 911 Dispatcher | 911 Dispatcher Typing Test |
| Data Entry Clerk | Data Entry Typing Test |
| Administrative Assistant | Admin Assistant Typing Test |
| Legal Secretary | Legal Secretary Typing Test |
| Medical Transcriptionist | Medical Transcriptionist Typing Test |
| All Job Roles | All Typing Tests by Job Role |
Average Typing Speed by Age
Typing speed tends to peak in the mid-twenties to mid-thirties and declines gradually after that — though regular practice significantly slows this decline.
| Age Group | Average WPM |
|---|---|
| 13 to 17 (teens) | 35–45 WPM |
| 18 to 24 | 42–50 WPM |
| 25 to 34 | 44–52 WPM |
| 35 to 44 | 42–50 WPM |
| 45 to 54 | 38–46 WPM |
| 55 to 64 | 34–42 WPM |
| 65 and above | 28–36 WPM |
A few important notes about these figures:
Regular practice matters more than age. A 55-year-old who types daily for work will consistently outperform a 25-year-old who types occasionally.
Teens often surprise. The generation that grew up with smartphones and keyboards tends to enter the workforce with higher baseline typing speeds than previous generations did at the same age.
Accuracy declines less than speed with age. Older typists often maintain high accuracy even as raw speed decreases, which means their net WPM may hold up better than their gross WPM suggests.
The Accuracy Gate: For employment assessments, precision wins. Most employer typing tests use an accuracy gate — typically 95% — below which your score is disqualified entirely, regardless of your speed. If your accuracy is below 95%, fixing that is more urgent than chasing higher WPM.
Speed vs Accuracy — Which Matters More?
For most job assessments, accuracy matters more than raw speed.
Here is the calculation that makes this clear:
- A typist at 60 gross WPM with 90% accuracy — net WPM: approximately 48
- A typist at 50 gross WPM with 98% accuracy — net WPM: approximately 49
The slower typist scores higher on the employer test. This is why most typing coaches recommend building accuracy first and letting speed follow — rather than pushing speed while accepting higher error rates.
Check your net WPM: Use our Net WPM Calculator to see your actual employer score after error deductions.
How to Improve Your Typing Speed
If your current speed is below your target, consistent daily practice is the most reliable path forward.
Practice at the right duration. If your job test is 5 minutes, practice 5-minute tests — not 1-minute tests. Endurance is a separate skill from raw speed and must be built through the right format.
Focus on accuracy first. Deliberately slow down until your error rate drops below 3%. Then gradually increase speed. Most people gain 8 to 12 WPM within two to four weeks of 15-minute daily practice.
Practice with realistic content. Literary quotes and random words do not prepare you for job-specific content. If you are applying for a dispatch role, practice with dispatch-style content. If you are applying for data entry, practice with numbers, addresses, and mixed content.
Start with the test that matches your goal:
| Duration | Practice Test | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Minute | 1 Minute Typing Test | Quick daily check |
| 3 Minutes | 3 Minute Typing Test | Balanced practice |
| 5 Minutes | 5 Minute Typing Test | Employer standard length |
| 10 Minutes | 10 Minute Typing Test | Endurance benchmark |
Frequently Asked Questions
37 WPM is just below the adult average of 40 WPM and is perfectly adequate for basic computer tasks. For job applications, it meets the minimum for some government and customer service roles but falls below the threshold for most administrative, data entry, legal, and medical positions. Building to at least 45 WPM with 95% accuracy should be your near-term goal.
Yes — 45 WPM with 95% accuracy checks the boxes for customer service positions, general office clerk roles, and many government jobs. The 95% accuracy is exactly at the threshold most employer assessments require, so maintaining that precision while building speed is the right strategy.
70 WPM is genuinely fast by any measure, and reaching it with two fingers is impressive. However, two-finger typing has a practical ceiling — most people plateau around 70 to 80 WPM this way. If you want to consistently exceed 80 WPM, learning touch typing with all ten fingers is the most reliable path forward.
Typing above 70 WPM is generally considered fast for everyday purposes. Above 90 WPM is very fast, putting you in the top 5% of typists. Above 120 WPM is top 1% territory. Court reporters using steno machines typically operate at 200 to 225 WPM — well beyond what standard keyboard typists achieve.
On a standard QWERTY keyboard, 200 WPM is extremely rare and represents world-class performance. The verified world record for English text on a standard keyboard is above 210 WPM. A small number of competitive typists have reached 180 to 200 WPM in controlled conditions.
Most people gain 8 to 12 WPM within two to four weeks of consistent 15-minute daily practice. Going from 40 WPM to 60 WPM typically takes four to eight weeks. Going from 60 WPM to 80 WPM takes longer — usually three to six months — because gains slow down as you approach your natural ceiling.