Typing Speed Calculator
Gross and net words per minute, accuracy and characters per minute, from the characters you typed, the errors left in and the time taken.
Result…
How it's calculated
Standard words = characters ÷ 5 · Gross WPM = words ÷ minutes Net WPM = gross WPM − uncorrected errors ÷ minutes Accuracy = (characters − errors) ÷ characters × 100 · CPM = characters ÷ minutes
Typing speed is measured in standard words of five characters, counting spaces and punctuation, so long and short words are treated the same. Gross (raw) speed is how fast you typed with no penalty. Net speed takes off one word per minute for each error left in the text, so it rewards typing that does not need fixing. Accuracy here is the share of typed characters that were not errors. A test that counts errors by word rather than by character will give a slightly different accuracy; the net speed formula is the same.
Your numbers, step by step
About the Typing Speed calculator
This typing speed calculator turns a typing test into words per minute. Enter the characters you typed, the errors you left in and the time it took, and it gives your gross speed, your net speed after the error penalty, your accuracy and your characters per minute. It uses the standard word of five characters, counting spaces and punctuation, so a passage of long words and one of short words are scored the same way. That makes it useful for checking a result from a job test, timing your own practice from a word processor's character count, or comparing two tests that report differently. Net speed takes off one word per minute for each error per minute left in the text, which is why accurate typing often scores better than fast, careless typing. The steps show each division with your own numbers.
How to use it
- Enter “Characters typed”, counting spaces and punctuation; a word processor's character count with spaces gives it.
- Enter the “Errors left uncorrected” at the end of the test.
- Enter the time in “Minutes” and “Seconds”.
- Read your net speed, then the gross speed, accuracy and characters per minute below it.
Worked example
You type 1,840 characters in 4 minutes and leave 6 errors. That is 1,840 ÷ 5 = 368 standard words, so gross speed is 368 ÷ 4 = 92 WPM. Errors per minute are 6 ÷ 4 = 1.5, so net speed is 92 − 1.5 = 90.5 WPM. Accuracy is (1,840 − 6) ÷ 1,840 × 100 = 99.7%, and you typed 1,840 ÷ 4 = 460 characters per minute.
Updated
Questions people ask
How do I calculate words per minute from characters?
Divide the characters typed by 5 to get standard words, then divide by the minutes taken. 1,500 characters in 5 minutes is 300 words ÷ 5 = 60 WPM gross.
What is the difference between gross and net WPM?
Gross WPM is raw speed with no penalty. Net WPM subtracts the uncorrected errors per minute from it, so 60 WPM gross with 2 errors a minute is 58 WPM net.
Why is a word counted as five characters?
Real words vary in length, so typing tests standardise a word as five keystrokes, including spaces and punctuation, as described on Wikipedia's words per minute page. That keeps scores comparable across different passages.
Do corrected mistakes count against me?
Not in net speed here: only errors still in the text are subtracted, though fixing them cost you time. Some tests also count corrected keystrokes in accuracy, so their accuracy can be lower than this one.
How accurate is a typing speed score?
It is only as good as the counts you enter, and tests differ in whether they count wrong words or wrong characters. Compare results from the same test and passage length. To estimate how long a text takes to read rather than type, try the reading time calculator.