Glossary
Keystrokes per hour (KPH)
Keystrokes per hour (KPH) is the number of key presses made in one hour. It is the standard unit for numeric data entry, where many jobs require 8,000 or 10,000 keystrokes per hour, and it counts keys rather than words.
Updated October 16, 20264 cited facts, each traced to its source
Also called KPH, key depressions per hour, KDPH.
Keystrokes per hour (KPH) is a typing speed counted as key presses over one hour. It is the unit used for numeric data entry, such as keying in figures from bills, checks or forms. Some sources call it key depressions per hour or KDPH. Be careful with the abbreviation outside typing, because KPH also means kilometers per hour.
Numeric entry is measured in keystrokes per hour
The Wikipedia article on words per minute describes numeric entry, the skill of using the numeric keypad on a keyboard. It says that this speed "is measured in keystrokes per hour (KPH)" and that "Many jobs require a certain KPH, often 8,000 or 10,000" 1. The jobs it names include entering figures from remittance advice, bills and checks.
Those targets are for key presses, not words, because a column of numbers has no word boundaries. A typist who is fast at numbers may be slow at prose, and the reverse is also true, which is why KPH and words per minute answer different questions.
How KPH compares with words per minute
KPH is a count of keys, so it can be converted to a words-based figure only with a convention. A rough conversion takes the average online typing speed of 51.56 WPM 2 and counts five characters per word 3. At that speed, a typist enters about 15,468 characters in an hour 4.
This is an approximation. The calculation counts characters typed, not the backspaces and other editing keys a real session includes, so a real keystroke count for the same typist would be higher. Use the conversion to compare orders of magnitude, not to report a precise score.
Why KPH matters for jobs and tests
Jobs that set a KPH target, as the numeric entry description above notes 1, are counting entries that must be accurate. A typist who reaches the target but makes errors does not pass, so KPH is always read with accuracy, as explained in our guide to typing accuracy. Speed on the keypad also says little about speed on the letter keys, so a test for one task does not transfer to the other.
For dictation, KPH is rarely the right measure, because speaking does not produce keystrokes. The useful comparison for dictation is in words or characters per minute, where speech is much faster than typing.
Related terms
- Characters per minute (CPM): the same speed counted in characters, per minute.
- Keystrokes per character (KSPC): the number of key presses needed to enter one character.
- Typing accuracy: the share of entered text that is correct.
Guides and questions that cover it
Evidence
Every number on this page, with where it comes from. Open a fact to see the exact words in its source.
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Related terms
- Typing Speed: Average WPM and How to Type FasterThe topic this term belongs to
- Articulation rateArticulation rate is the number of syllables a speaker produces per second, leaving out pauses. It measures how fast the speech itself comes out, so it is usually faster than the overall speaking rate that counts every pause.
- Characters per minute (CPM)Characters per minute (CPM) is the number of characters typed in one minute, counting spaces and punctuation. Words per minute is the same count divided by five, so a typist at 50 WPM enters 250 characters per minute.
- ColemakColemak is an alternative English keyboard layout, introduced in 2006 and designed for efficient, comfortable touch typing. Its supporters describe it as the third most popular layout for English touch typing, after QWERTY and Dvorak, but that ranking has no stated method.
- Dvorak Simplified KeyboardThe Dvorak Simplified Keyboard is an alternative English keyboard layout that places the most common letters on the home row. Dvorak and Dealey applied for a patent on it in 1932, but the studies that claimed it was faster than QWERTY have been criticized, and the evidence for a speed gain is weak.
- Home rowThe home row is the middle row of keys on a keyboard, where the fingers rest when you touch type. On a QWERTY keyboard it holds A, S, D, F for the left hand and J, K, L and semicolon for the right, and every other key is reached by moving a finger away from it and back.
- Hunt and peckHunt and peck is a typing method in which the typist finds each key by sight and presses it with one or two fingers, usually the index fingers. It is also called two-finger typing, and it differs from touch typing, which relies on memorized key positions and the home row.
- Keystroke dynamicsKeystroke dynamics is the identification of a person from the rhythm of their typing, using the timing between key presses as a pattern much like a handwritten signature. It is a behavioral biometric, so it supports identity checks through statistical matching rather than proving who typed.
- Keystrokes per character (KSPC)Keystrokes per character (KSPC) is the average number of keystrokes a text entry method needs to produce one character of text. A basic QWERTY keyboard scores 1, methods that need more presses score above 1, and word prediction can score below 1.
- Oral reading fluency (ORF)Oral reading fluency (ORF) measures how many words a reader gets right in one minute of reading a passage aloud. Schools record the result as words correct per minute (WCPM), which subtracts the words read wrongly from the total.
- QWERTYQWERTY is the standard letter arrangement on English keyboards, named for the first six letters of the top row. Christopher Latham Sholes devised it in the early 1870s for typewriters, and it is still the layout most people type on, even though faster layouts have been proposed.
- Rollover typingRollover, or key rollover, is the number of key presses a keyboard can detect when they overlap. Two-key rollover reliably detects only two keys at once, and a matrix keyboard without diodes can register a ghost key when three keys are pressed together.
- StenotypeA stenotype, also called a steno machine, is a chorded keyboard that stenographers use for shorthand, pressing several keys together to produce a syllable or word. The NCRA's court reporter skills test sets a speed of 225 words per minute, and voice writing is a newer method that uses speech recognition instead.
Pages that use this term
- Typing Speed: Average WPM and How to Type FasterTopic
- How Typing Speed Is Measured: WPM, Accuracy and TestsGuide
- Typing Speed Requirements for Jobs: WPM by RoleGuide
- How do you convert WPM to keystrokes per hour?Question
- What typing speed do government jobs require?Question
- What typing speed do you need for data entry and live chat jobs?Question
- What typing speed is required for SSC CGL?Question
- Characters per minute (CPM)Glossary
- Keystrokes per character (KSPC)Glossary
- Words per minute (WPM)Glossary