Is 70 WPM Good?
70 WPM is fast: well above average. It is 18 WPM above the 51.6 WPM average in the largest typing study and faster than about 81.9% of the people tested.
Scale 0–150 WPM. The tick marks the 51.6 WPM study average.
What 70 WPM means in practice
- A 150-word email: about 2 minutes of typing.
- A 500-word essay: about 7 minutes.
- 1,000 words of notes or transcription: about 14 minutes.
Jobs that 70 WPM qualifies for
Typical requirements from job listings (they vary by employer, and most also want 90–98% accuracy):
| Role | Typical ask | At 70 WPM |
|---|---|---|
| General office / receptionist | 35–45 WPM | Comfortably meets |
| Customer service / chat support | 40–60 WPM | Comfortably meets |
| Administrative assistant | 45–60 WPM | Comfortably meets |
| Legal or medical secretary | 60–75 WPM | Meets the lower end |
| Transcriptionist | 65–80 WPM | Meets the lower end |
For numeric roles scored in keystrokes per hour, use the 10 key test or the data entry test.
How to move past 70 WPM
At this level gains are small and slow. Work on long-text consistency (5 and 10 minute tests), punctuation and capitals, and keep error correction low. Practice drills target the keys you miss, and how to type faster explains why slowing down slightly often raises net WPM.
Next milestone: is 90 WPM good?
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Frequently asked questions
Is 70 WPM a good typing speed?
70 WPM is fast: well above average. In the largest typing study (Dhakal et al., CHI 2018, about 168,000 volunteers) the average was 51.6 WPM, so 70 WPM is 18 WPM above that average and faster than roughly 81.9% of participants.
Is 70 WPM good enough for a job?
It meets the typical listed requirement for: general office / receptionist; customer service / chat support; administrative assistant; legal or medical secretary; transcriptionist. Employers usually also expect 90 to 98 percent accuracy, and many test you themselves.
How many characters per minute is 70 WPM?
Typing tests count a word as 5 characters, so 70 WPM is 350 characters per minute, or about 21,000 keystrokes per hour.
How long does it take to type 1,000 words at 70 WPM?
About 14 minutes of pure typing. A 500-word essay takes about 7 minutes. Real writing takes longer because you also stop to think.
How do I get faster than 70 WPM?
At this level gains are small and slow. Work on long-text consistency (5 and 10 minute tests), punctuation and capitals, and keep error correction low.
Percentiles are a normal approximation (mean 51.56, SD 20.2) of the data in Dhakal, Feit, Kristensson & Oulasvirta, "Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes", CHI 2018. Volunteers on a typing site are likely faster than the general public, so treat percentiles as approximate. See average typing speed.