60 seconds, free
1 Minute Typing Test
The fastest honest answer to "how fast do I type?". Sixty seconds of ordinary English, timed from your first keystroke, scored in words per minute and accuracy, with a per-finger breakdown that shows exactly which keys cost you time.
What a 1 minute typing test measures
One minute is long enough to type sixty to a hundred words of running text and short enough that fatigue never enters the picture. What you get is your burst speed: the pace your hands hold when they are fresh, focused and typing familiar words. It is the number most typing sites report, which makes it the right length for comparing yourself with a score you got somewhere else.
Because the window is short, a single stumble matters. Two seconds lost to a mistyped word and a backspace is three percent of the test. That is why a 1-minute score swings by five or ten WPM from one attempt to the next, and why you should treat the average of three attempts as your real number rather than the best of them.
Who should use the 1-minute length
The short test earns its place as a daily check-in. Take it once at the start of a practice session and once at the end, and the difference tells you whether the session helped. It is also the right length for anyone who has just learned touch typing and wants to see progress without committing to a long sit.
- Daily warm-up before lessons or real work: a minute settles your hands on the home row.
- Comparing with another site's score: most of them report a 60-second result.
- Beginners who tire quickly: a short window keeps accuracy high and morale intact.
- Testing a new keyboard or layout: one minute is enough to feel where the keys differ.
How the score is calculated
Every five characters you type, spaces included, count as one word. The speed shown in your result credits only words you typed correctly: a correct word adds its characters and its space, and a word with an error still in it when you press space adds nothing. Those credited characters, divided by five and by the minutes elapsed, are your WPM. Accuracy is the credited characters as a share of everything you submitted, so a misspelt word counts against you in full and a mistake you fix before pressing space does not count at all.
The test also records the time between keystrokes and which finger should have pressed each key. Those two facts together produce the finger-level report at the end, which is where a 1-minute test becomes useful for practice rather than just for bragging.
Why your 1-minute score is higher than your real speed
Almost everyone types faster in a sprint than over a working hour. The gap is not dishonesty; it is physiology. Over a longer stretch your rhythm drifts, your error rate rises, and you spend more time correcting. Employers and exam boards know this, which is why job typing tests are almost always five or ten minutes long. If you are preparing for one of those, use this page for the daily check and the longer tests for the rehearsal.
Getting a fair result
Sit with your elbows at about ninety degrees, wrists floating just above the desk, fingers resting on A S D F and J K L ;. Read a few words ahead of the cursor rather than staring at the word you are typing. If you make a mistake, correct it immediately with backspace rather than carrying on; a word with an error still in it when you press space earns nothing in the net score. Do not look at the keyboard; the on-screen keyboard and finger guide are there so your eyes stay on the screen.
FAQ
Is a 1 minute typing test accurate?
It is accurate for burst speed. It overstates the speed you can sustain over real work, because fatigue and corrections have not had time to show. Take three attempts and use the average, or take the 5-minute test for a sustained figure.
How many words can you type in 1 minute?
An average adult types about forty words in a minute. A touch typist typically manages sixty to eighty. Professional typists exceed ninety. Since a word is five characters, forty WPM is two hundred characters in the minute.
Does the timer start when I press start?
No. The passage appears and the sixty seconds begin on your first keystroke, so you can read the opening words and settle your hands first.
Do I need an account to take the test?
No. The test and the finger-level result are free without signing in. An account is only needed to save results into a history and chart your progress over time.
Can I retake the 1-minute test as often as I like?
Yes. Every attempt draws a fresh passage from the word pool for your language, so you are never retyping the same text from memory.