Fact · Typing and writing speed
In the 2018 online study, WPM was calculated for each typed sentence as the transcribed length in words, divided by the time from the first to the last keypress.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“WORDS PER MINUTE (WPM) is calculated for each typed sentence as the length of the string transcribed (in words, where one word consists of any five characters) divided by the time from the first to the last keypress (in minutes).”
Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes, Vivek Dhakal et al., CHI 2018, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2018, Performance Measures.
Open the original (DOI 10.1145/3173574.3174220)- What it measures
- The 2018 study defines a word as any five characters, and it times each sentence from the first keypress to the last, so the clock does not include the time spent reading the sentence.
- What it does not show
- Counting from the first keypress leaves out the time spent reading the sentence before typing started.