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1 minute test

1 minute typing test

The benchmark most people mean when they talk about their typing speed. One minute gives you a net speed, a gross speed, three accuracy figures and an error count, and it takes just about as long as reading this paragraph.

Test length
Text
Level
Time0:00
Speed0
Accuracy—
Errors0

Click Start Test to reveal the passage. The timer starts when you type your first character.

Start Test opens the test in focus mode; the timer starts when you type your first character. Backspace fixes a mistake, and Esc or Exit leaves full screen without stopping the test.

Why one minute is the benchmark

Test lengths are a trade-off between how representative the number is and how often you will take it.

Short tests are dominated by the opening. The first few seconds of any run are faster than the rest, because you are concentrating hard on a short burst, and a fifteen second result is mostly made up of that opening. Long tests have the opposite problem: by the end of ten minutes you are tired, and the number reflects endurance as much as skill.

One minute sits at the point where neither effect dominates. You are barely past the adrenaline, you are not yet tired, and you produce somewhere around sixty to a hundred and fifty words, which is enough for the rounding to be honest. It is also short enough that you will run it once a week rather than once a year, and a measurement you actually take is worth far more than a perfect measurement you take once.

How to read your one minute result

Net speed
The headline figure, and the one to compare across runs. It counts the characters that match the passage, so it cannot be inflated by typing fast and wrong.
Gross speed
Your raw output rate. The gap between gross and net tells you how much your mistakes cost you, which is a more interesting number than either one on its own.
Character accuracy
The share of your text that is correct as it stands at the end. Fixing a mistake with backspace raises this figure immediately.
Word accuracy
How many whole words match exactly. It is always lower than character accuracy, because one wrong letter inside a word costs you the whole word.
Keystroke accuracy
How many of your key presses were right the first time, including the ones you went back and fixed. When this drops well below character accuracy, you are making and correcting mistakes as you go.

Making the number move

If you want to improve, work on the weaker half of the score rather than the whole thing. A typist at 60 words per minute and 92 per cent accuracy has a very different problem from one at 60 words per minute and 99 per cent accuracy, and the fix is different too.

When accuracy is the problem, slow down deliberately until it sits above 95 per cent, and stay there. Most people find that their speed recovers within a few days because the mistakes were costing them time anyway. When speed is the problem and accuracy is already high, work on reading further ahead. Thelearn typing guide covers the mechanics, and the lesson sections isolate the keys you keep hesitating over.

Frequently asked questions

Questions about the one minute typing test.

Why is one minute the standard typing test?
One minute is long enough that the first few seconds of nerves do not dominate the result, and short enough that people actually take it often enough to track their progress. It is also long enough to produce a meaningful number of words, so the rounding does not swing the score by more than a word or two.
Should I use the one minute test to compare myself with other people?
Only loosely. Text length, keyboard layout, punctuation and whether you are reading ahead all change the number. The comparison that means something is your own score against your own score on the same passage type a few weeks apart.
What is the difference between gross and net speed again?
Gross speed counts every character you typed. Net speed subtracts the characters that do not match the passage. If you typed 300 characters and made 15 mistakes, gross speed is 60 words per minute and net speed is 57. Net speed is the number to believe, because it describes the text you actually produced.
Can I take the same test more than once?
Of course. When the timer runs out you can choose "Try again" to type exactly the same passage again, which is the best way to practise a specific passage, or "New text" for a fresh one. Your best result for each length and text type is kept in your browser.
Does it matter that the passages are different each time?
Somewhat. Some passages contain longer words and heavier punctuation, which are slower to type. If you want a like for like comparison, use the same text type every time and compare the same length, and run each one three times.