Is 80 WPM good?
Yes, very. It is typical of professional typists, programmers and people who write all day.
- Level
- Very fast
- Characters per minute
- 400
- Words per hour
- 4,800
- 500-word essay
- 6.3 minutes
What 80 WPM means in practice
80 words per minute is 400 characters a minute, or about 6.7 keystrokes every second. A double-spaced page of around 250 words would take about 3.1 minutes of pure typing. In typing tests, a "word" is always five characters including spaces, so the number does not depend on how long the actual words were. The WPM explainer shows the calculation step by step.
Speed only counts if it is accurate. 80 WPM at 98% accuracy is far more useful than the same speed at 90%, where roughly one keystroke in ten needs fixing. Check both numbers with the 1-minute typing test.
How to keep improving
- Push accuracy to 97% or more; corrections are the biggest hidden cost at high speed.
- Read one or two words ahead of your fingers.
- Practise symbols, numbers and code, where even fast typists slow down.
More habits that help are in how to type faster.
80 WPM FAQ
Is 80 WPM good?
Yes, very. It is typical of professional typists, programmers and people who write all day. For comparison, a 2018 study of about 168,000 volunteers by Aalto University and the University of Cambridge measured an average of about 52 WPM.
How many characters per minute is 80 WPM?
400 characters per minute, because one "word" in typing tests is five characters including spaces. That is about 6.7 keystrokes per second.
How long would a 500-word essay take at 80 WPM?
About 6.3 minutes of pure typing. Real writing takes longer because of thinking and editing.
How do I get faster than 80 WPM?
At this level gains come from accuracy (aim for 97%+), weak-key drills, reading ahead and practising punctuation and numbers, not from typing harder.