Fact · Typing and writing speed
35.2words per minute
In the text entry speed by input method dataset, the 22 published figures for “Phone touchscreen keyboard” have a median of 35.2 words per minute, ranging from 1.6 to 52.
Calculated from 22 data points on October 19, 2026
- What it measures
- Each figure is one row of the dataset: a published measurement for a stated group, traced to its source. The median is the middle value of the 22 figures for this group.
- How it is calculated
- Median of 22 values (1.6, 1.9, 7.5, 24.3, 25.6, 26.3, 28.9, 32.1, 32.2, 32.8, 34.6, 35.7, 36.2, 36.5, 37.4, 37.7, 37.8, 38, 39, 39.6, 43, 52) = 35.2.
- What it does not show
- Methods are measured in different studies with different people, phrases and error handling. A direct comparison is only fair within one study; the medians show the typical reported figure per method.
A statistic of the dataset Speech vs Typing Speed: Text Entry Rates Compared, calculated by code from its published rows.
Calculated from
- In the 2024 blind-user study, average typing speed on the default smartphone keyboard without word prediction was 1.87 words per minute.
- In the results section of the blind-user study, average typing speed was 1.87 words per minute without word prediction and 1.63 with it.
- In a three-week field study of 30 people typing in their own apps, the mean typing speed was 32.1 words per minute.
- In a longitudinal study with 12 blind participants, the dissertation reports an average entry speed of 7.5 words per minute on a QWERTY keyboard with VoiceOver.
- Participants aged 10 to 19 typed the fastest of all age groups on phones, with a mean of 39.6 words per minute.
- Participants aged 20 to 29 averaged 36.5 words per minute on phones.
- Participants aged 30 to 39 averaged 32.2 words per minute on phones.
- Participants aged 40 to 49 averaged 28.9 words per minute on phones.
- Participants aged 50 to 59 averaged 26.3 words per minute on phones, the lowest of the age groups in Table 4.
- Participants under 10 years old were the slowest age group on phones, with a mean of 24.3 words per minute.
- In an online study of 37,370 volunteers typing on their own phones, the average speed was 36.2 words per minute, with 2.3 percent uncorrected errors.
- Native speakers of English were the fastest group by English experience, with a mean of 37.8 words per minute on phones.
- Participants who never type in English were the slowest group by English experience, with a mean of 25.6 words per minute on phones.
- In the Palin study, people who reported word prediction alone averaged 32.8 words per minute, against 34.8 for people who used no intelligent text entry feature.
- In the Palin study, people who had taken a touch typing course for desktop keyboards averaged 35.7 words per minute on phones, slightly slower than the 36.4 of those who had not.
- In the Palin study, participants who reported using two fingers averaged 37.7 words per minute, significantly faster than the 29.2 of those who used only one finger.
- Typing with two thumbs was the fastest phone technique in the study, at a mean of 38.02 words per minute.
- In the U.S. subsample of the phone study, participants aged 20 to 29 averaged 39.0 words per minute, slightly above the 38.0 for ages 10 to 19.
- In the U.S. subsample, men averaged 37.4 words per minute on phones.
- In the U.S. subsample, women averaged 34.6 words per minute on phones.
- In the same study, Mandarin Chinese text entered with the built-in Pinyin keyboard reached 43 words per minute, against 123 words per minute by speech.
- In the same controlled study on an iPhone, English text entered on the built-in QWERTY keyboard reached 52 words per minute, against 153 words per minute by speech.