Can you type fast without touch typing?

Yes. Many people type quickly without touch typing, and the studies we reviewed disagree on how large the speed gap is. The clearer difference is where your eyes go while you type. Whether touch typing is worth the practice depends on how many hours you type each day.

Typists who never trained can reach comparable speeds

In the Aalto transcription study, self-taught typists who never learned touch typing reached speeds comparable with touch typists, even when they used fewer fingers ¹. The same study found that typists without training spent about twice as much of their typing time looking at the keyboard ². That is the clearest difference between the two groups in that study.

A different study found a larger gap in speed

A Vanderbilt study, reported in a press summary by the Association for Psychological Science, found a wider gap. Standard typists, meaning touch typists, averaged 79.99 words per minute, against 65.63 for nonstandard typists ³. Because that figure comes from a press summary, treat it as an approximate average. The two studies disagree on how large the speed difference is, so the honest reading is that touch typing gives a clear advantage in some tasks and a small one in others.

Trained typists are faster on average, but the gap is small

A large 2018 online study of typing data found that untrained typists can be as fast as trained typists, although trained typists are faster on average ⁴. Trained typists in that sample averaged about 5 words per minute faster, a small difference next to the spread within each group ⁵.

That sample was made up of people interested in testing and developing their typing skills, so it is not a random sample of everyone ⁶. Treat the averages as a guide to typical gaps, not as a prediction for you.

Hybrid typists sit between the two methods

Typists who do not look at the keyboard but do not use the home row either are called hybrid typists ⁷. The studies we reviewed did not measure hybrid typists as a group. Hunt-and-peck typing, the older term for typing with one or two fingers, is defined in our glossary entry for hunt and peck. Our question on touch typing versus hunt and peck compares the two methods.

On phones, touch-typing training made little difference

Phones change the picture. In a large study of phone typing, people who had taken a touch typing course for desktop keyboards averaged 35.7 words per minute, slightly slower than the 36.4 of those who had not ⁸. In that study the course gave phone typists no advantage: the trained group was slightly slower. Our guide to phone typing speed covers the methods that work on phones.

When touch typing still pays off

Touch typing is worth learning mainly when you type for hours and want your attention on the text. In our judgment, the gaze difference is the strongest reason we found, and it matters most when you copy or compose at length. If you type a few messages a day and already reach a speed you are happy with, the studies do not show a large speed gain to justify months of practice. Our question on whether touch typing is worth learning takes up that choice in detail.

What to do before you decide

1. Measure your current speed and accuracy with one test that you can repeat. Our guide to how typing speed is measured explains the difference between speed and accuracy, and the glossary entry on words per minute defines the unit.
2. Count your fingers, and watch whether you look at the keys. If you look down often, that is the habit touch typing would change.
3. Work on the weakest part first. Our guide to how to type faster covers the practical steps that raise speed without retraining your whole method.
4. Decide by hours, not by speed alone. If you type all day, the attention gain is worth the practice. If you do not, a faster routine may be enough.

For the full method, read our guide to touch typing, and the overview of typing speed covers the rest of the subject.