AcademyAverage Typing Speed: What the Research Actually Shows

The typical U.S. adult types about 38 words per minute on a computer and 29 on a smartphone, according to a 2026 study of 10,613 adults from a nationally representative panel.^{Source 1} People who take online typing tests are faster: 168,960 volunteers in a 2018 study averaged about 52 WPM on computer keyboards.^{Source 2} Which figure fits you depends on who was measured and how, and this page explains both.

Who was measured	Speed	Study
U.S. adults on a computer (median)	37.8 WPM	2026 panel study, 5,835 people
U.S. adults on a smartphone (median)	29.4 WPM	2026 panel study, 4,778 people
Typing-test volunteers on keyboards (average)	51.56 WPM	2018 study, 168,960 people
Typing-test volunteers on phones (average)	36.2 WPM	2019 study, 37,370 people
U.S. federal clerk-typist standard	40 WPM	Five-minute test, three or fewer errors

U.S. adults: about 38 WPM on a computer

The most representative figures come from the Understanding America Study, an online panel recruited by mail to reflect U.S. adults. In a 2026 analysis, 10,613 panelists typed one short sentence (in English, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”) as quickly as they could, on a device of their choice. Their speed was multiplied by their accuracy, so errors lowered the score.^{Source 1}

• On a computer (5,835 people): median 37.8 WPM. The middle half typed between 24.1 and 55.8 WPM.
• On a smartphone (4,778 people): median 29.4 WPM, with the middle half between 20.0 and 42.6.

One sentence is a short sample, and the authors note two limits: panelists may be more at home with technology than the general population, and older adults with very low functional abilities may be underrepresented.^{Source 1}

Typing-test volunteers: about 52 WPM

A 2018 study analyzed 136 million keystrokes from 168,960 volunteers who copied 15 English sentences in an online test built for the research, most of them on laptop or desktop keyboards.^{Source 2}

• Average: 51.56 WPM, with a standard deviation of 20.2: a wide spread.
• The fastest 10% typed above roughly 78 WPM and the slowest 10% below roughly 26 WPM. The fastest participants reached 120 WPM or more.
• Training helped a little. Volunteers who had taken a typing course averaged 54.35 WPM, against 49.00 for those who hadn’t.
• More fingers went with more speed. The fastest tenth reported using 8.4 fingers on average, the slowest tenth 5.3.
• Errors left in the text averaged 1.17%, and typists who made and corrected fewer errors were generally faster.

Why higher than the panel? These volunteers chose to take a typing test: most were young (average age 24.5) and interested in typing, and 72% had taken a typing course. Each sentence was timed from its first to its last keypress, and errors weren’t subtracted from the speed.^{Source 2}

Race it now

60secondsGrand Prix1-minute typing test

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On phones: about 29 to 36 WPM

A follow-up study of 37,370 volunteers on mobile devices measured an average of 36.2 WPM, with 2.3% of errors left uncorrected.^{Source 3} The typical U.S. adult in the 2026 panel, a broader group, typed 29.4 WPM on a smartphone.^{Source 1}

• Two thumbs beat one. Over 74% of the volunteers typed with both thumbs, which was significantly faster than one thumb or one finger.
• Autocorrect users typed faster, while people who picked suggested words by hand typed slower. These are correlations, not proof of cause.
• About 70% of keyboard speed. The researchers found that people type about 70% as fast on a phone, with one or two fingers, as on a full desktop keyboard.^{Source 3}

Average typing speed by age

The 2026 panel study charts average speed for each two-year age band but doesn’t list the values in its text, so we don’t print a table by age. Here is what the research does state:

• Among U.S. adults, speed falls steadily with age, on computers and on phones: the correlations between age and accuracy-adjusted speed were −0.52 and −0.57.^{Source 1}
• On phones, the youngest were fastest. Volunteers aged 10 to 19 typed fastest on mobile devices, even though they spent less time on their phones than people aged 20 to 39.^{Source 3}
• Skilled typists can hold their speed. In a classic study of typists aged 19 to 72, the older typists had slower reaction times but were not slower at typing, apparently because they read further ahead in the text.^{Source 4}

Reading ahead is a skill you can train at any age; it is step 4 of our plan to type faster.

What is a good typing speed?

There is no official scale. Here is how the sourced figures line up, with the speed class TypeTrance would give a run at each speed:

Speed	What it is	Speed class
24.1 WPM	One in four U.S. adults on a computer typed slower (2026)	Spark
36.2 WPM	Average volunteer on a phone (2019)	Pulse
37.8 WPM	Typical U.S. adult on a computer (2026)	Pulse
40 WPM	U.S. federal clerk-typist standard	Pulse
51.56 WPM	Average typing-test volunteer on a keyboard (2018)	Drift
55.8 WPM	One in four U.S. adults on a computer typed faster (2026)	Drift
60 to 75 WPM	Professional typists in typewriter-era studies	Drift to Flow
About 78 WPM	The fastest 10% of typing-test volunteers typed faster (2018)	Flow
120 WPM and up	The fastest typing-test volunteers (2018)	Trance

So 40 WPM is a solid working speed, above about 56 WPM you are faster than three in four U.S. adults on a computer, and 78 WPM or more puts you among the fastest tenth of people who take typing tests. Every TypeTrance run gets one of ten speed classes, from Spark (0–29 WPM) to Transcend (200+); our typing speed chart with all ten classes explains each range and what to practice next. A class names a run, never a person, and doesn’t rank you against anyone.

Why your number may not match

1. The text. One short sentence, 15 sentences and a minute of random common words are different tasks.
2. The clock. The 2018 study timed each sentence from its first to its last keypress, so pauses between sentences didn’t count. TypeTrance’s timed tests divide by the full duration, pauses included.
3. Errors. The 2018 study measured the whole text typed, errors included, and the 2026 study multiplied speed by accuracy. TypeTrance’s corrected WPM credits only words typed exactly right, so the same typing can score a little lower here.
4. The device. Phone speeds ran about 20 to 30% below keyboard speeds in these studies. TypeTrance keeps touch-screen results apart from keyboard results.
5. Who was measured. Volunteers who take a typing test are not a random sample of everyone who types.

All of these studies count a “word” as five characters, the text-entry convention since the early typing competitions,^{Source 6} so that part compares directly. To see exactly what TypeTrance counts, read how WPM is calculated.

Typing speed for jobs

The clearest published standards come from U.S. federal hiring, where typing speed is measured on a five-minute sample with three or fewer errors.^{Source 5}

• Clerk-typist and office automation positions: 40 WPM.
• Data transcriber positions: 20 WPM at grade GS-2 and 25 WPM at GS-3 and GS-4, or skill on a data transcribing machine instead.

Private employers set their own bars. If a posting names a speed, practice the format it describes and aim to clear that speed on a test of the same length, with few errors. Our typing test for jobs explains what employers measure.

Measure yours fairly

Take the 1-minute test three times on a hardware keyboard and keep the middle result, since a single run can be lucky or unlucky. Then compare with yourself: your trend over weeks says more about your progress than any population average. The research points the same way. In a study of 60 university students with years of typing experience, the fastest had taken a typing class and also kept the goal of typing quickly in their everyday typing; the class on its own made no significant difference.^{Source 7}