What is the fastest typing speed ever recorded?

We found no verified keyboard record for typing speed. The figure people quote most, 212 words per minute (WPM), was a self-claimed peak ¹, and the best-documented race result is lower. The answer depends on what you count: a short burst or sustained work, the layout, and whether a body that checks results timed it. Our guide to good typing speed sets out the levels that matter for everyday work.

Barbara Blackburn's 212 WPM was self-claimed

Barbara Blackburn is the name most often given. Her peak of 212 WPM, from 1986, was self-claimed and was held for a brief time ¹. She was recognized for her claimed speed on the Dvorak layout ², not the QWERTY layout most keyboards use, so the figure is not a like-for-like keyboard record. Guinness listed her as able to attain 170 WPM in its 1976 to 1986 editions ³. The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard entry explains the layout, and is Dvorak faster than QWERTY looks at the evidence on speed.

Guinness dropped keyboard records over accuracy, and the year is disputed

Guinness removed its typing speed records for electronic and computer keyboards from the 1987 edition onward, citing accuracy ⁴. The same Wikipedia article also says Blackburn's records were removed from the 1986 edition ⁵. The two years disagree. We did not check the Guinness editions themselves, so confirm the year in the book before you quote it. We also could not confirm a current Guinness category for keyboard speed, so check Guinness directly before you quote a title.

The best-documented QWERTY race is 163 WPM in 2010

In the 2010 final of the Ultimate Typing Championship, Sean Wrona beat Bowen 163 to 110 words per minute ⁶. The article calls that result an unofficial world record. It is a timed result from a live contest, which is stronger evidence than a self-claim, but it is still not a certified record. It is also a single race on a single text, so it does not show what the same typist would sustain over an hour.

The fastest measured typists reach at least 120 WPM

The large online study of about 168,000 volunteers found that its fastest typists reached 120 WPM or more ⁷. That is a measured sample of ordinary typing on ordinary text, which makes it the most useful top reference for everyday work. The study's participants were self-selected volunteers, so the top of the sample is also a sample of people who chose to take the test. Our 100 WPM question puts that top range in context.

Steno writers set far higher speeds on a different machine

Court reporters write with a stenotype, a chord machine, not a QWERTY keyboard. The NCRA reported that Mark Kislingbury broke his own record in March 2022 by writing 370 words in one minute at 95.4 percent accuracy ⁸. That is a one-minute burst on a different machine, so it is not a keyboard record. The stenography and shorthand guide explains how the method works.

Online scores are not verified records

Some online typing tests time a single short burst. The 10FastFingers test, for example, runs for one minute ⁹. We found no independent body that verifies scores from these sites, so we do not count them as records here.

What the record means for everyday typing

The record matters less to most people than the measured lines. The fastest tenth of the online sample is a more useful benchmark, and the top of that sample reached 120 WPM or more ⁷. Your own accuracy matters more than either, because errors take time to find and fix. For the full set of levels, read our guide to good typing speed.

Read next

• To see where 100 WPM stands, read is 100 WPM a fast typing speed.
• For the level below that, read is 60 words per minute a good typing speed.
• To see how keyboard layouts affect speed, read the keyboard layouts guide.
• For the fastest speeds in other contexts, read how fast stenographers type.