Typing Speed Test
Type the passage. The clock starts on your first key and stops on the last character.
The lighthouse keeper climbed the spiral stairs every evening at dusk. He wound the clockwork, trimmed the wick, and wiped the salt from the great glass lens. Ships he would never meet steered by the light he kept, and that was reason enough to climb.
Finished tests are kept here, on this device only.
This typing test measures how fast and how accurately you type a passage of ordinary English. Type the text in the box below it; the clock starts on your first key, and the test ends when you have typed the last character. As you go, each character turns dark when it is right and red when it is wrong, and the underline shows where you are.
Words per minute uses the standard definition of a word as five characters, spaces and punctuation included, so a passage of long words and a passage of short ones are measured the same way. Only characters that end up right count toward your WPM: typing 60 correct characters in 30 seconds is 12 words in half a minute, or 24 WPM. Raw speed counts everything you typed, right or wrong — the gap between the two is what your mistakes cost you.
Accuracy is measured key by key, at the moment you press it. If you type a wrong letter and fix it with Backspace, the passage ends up perfect but the mistake still counts, because the time it cost you was real. That is why a test can finish with every character right and still show less than 100% accuracy.
After each test you see the characters you missed most often — spaces included, which are among the commonest misses — and every character you got wrong at least once is underlined in the passage. Those are the keys worth practising.
There are ten built-in passages, written for this test in plain English with only the punctuation a standard keyboard has. Next passage steps through them in order. To practise on something of your own — code, a speech, a passage in your own field — choose Use your own text and paste it; line breaks and runs of spaces become single spaces, since a screen cannot show how many spaces a gap holds. Pasting into the typing box itself is switched off.
Your results are kept in this browser's own storage, on this device only: your five best and your ten most recent, with the date. Nothing is sent anywhere and there is no account. The trash button clears the history.
For far more — timed modes, other languages, punctuation and number drills, and a history kept across devices — Monkeytype is free and open source and runs in the browser; keeping your history there needs an account.
How is words per minute calculated?
A word is counted as five characters, including spaces and punctuation. Your WPM is the number of correctly typed characters divided by five, divided by the minutes taken. Characters typed wrong are left out; raw speed counts them.
Why is my accuracy below 100% when the passage is all correct?
Accuracy counts every key at the moment you pressed it. A mistake you corrected with Backspace still counts as a mistake, because it cost you time even though it does not show in the final text.
What is a good typing speed?
Around 40 WPM is a common figure for everyday typing, and 60 or more is quick. Accuracy matters as much as speed: every mistake takes a Backspace and a retype, so a slower, cleaner pace often finishes first.
Can I practise with my own text?
Yes. Choose “Use your own text”, paste or type at least 20 characters, and press “Use this text”. It is timed and scored the same way as the built-in passages.
Are my results saved?
Yes, in this browser on this device: your five best and ten most recent results. They are not sent anywhere. Clearing your browser data or pressing the trash button removes them.