Quick Typing Test
A thirty second typing test that opens ready to go: the clock is already set to 30 seconds, the passage is loaded, and it starts on your first keystroke rather than on page load. Half a minute is long enough to get a speed worth quoting and short enough to run three times while the kettle boils. You get net and gross words per minute, accuracy, and how steady your pace was.
Three hundred of the most common English words, in random order.
A clock counts down from the duration you pick and the score appears when it reaches zero.
Common questions
- Is thirty seconds long enough for an accurate result?
- For a rough figure, yes, and it is the length most people use for a quick check. It is noisier than a longer run: one bad word costs proportionally more of the total, so a 30 second score bounces around by a few words a minute between attempts. If you need a number to quote, run it two or three times, or switch the Duration control to 60 seconds or two minutes.
- Does the clock start when I open the page?
- No. It starts on your first keystroke and runs for exactly thirty seconds from there. Reading the passage, finding the home row and moving the mouse are not typing, and a clock that starts on page load charges you for them.
- What do net and gross mean here?
- Gross words per minute counts every character you typed, right or wrong, at five characters to a word. Net takes one word off for every mistake still standing when the clock stops, which is the convention employment typing tests use. Both are shown, so a number from this page will not surprise you when somebody else tests you.
- Can I retake it straight away?
- Yes, as many times as you like. Press Escape or the Restart button and a fresh passage is drawn immediately. Your best net speed at each duration is kept in this browser so you can see whether you are actually improving, and clearing site data removes it.
- Is anything I type sent anywhere?
- No. The passages ship with the page and the scoring runs in your browser. Nothing you type leaves the device, and there is no account to make.
Net WPM subtracts one word for every uncorrected error, the convention used by employer tests; gross WPM counts everything typed at five characters a word. Timing uses the browser clock and starts on your first keystroke, so the first second is never lost.