Is 60 WPM Fast?

Published

Yes. 60 WPM puts you in the top third of typists, faster than most regular computer users and comfortably above what office and administrative roles actually require. Not elite, but good.

Where 60 WPM sits in the data

The 2018 Aalto University study of 168,000 typists across 136 million keystrokes put the global average at 52 WPM. Aggregated data from over 30,000 TypeLit.io users gives an average of 51.8 WPM, median 49.7, with 29.9 percent of typists exceeding 60 WPM.

That means roughly 70 percent of typists come in under 60 WPM. If you are at 60, about two out of three typists you meet are slower than you are.

Every major WPM benchmark, in order

Below 30 WPM. Slow. Most adults who use a computer regularly type faster than this. If you are under 30 and use a keyboard daily, basic practice pays off quickly.

30 to 40 WPM. Functional but below average. Many self-taught hunt-and-peck typists settle here. Office work is possible. Extended writing feels slow.

40 to 50 WPM. The single most common bracket. 22.3 percent of TypeLit.io users land here. This is the floor for most office and administrative roles.

50 to 60 WPM. Around the global average. Comfortable for most professional work. 19.3 percent of TypeLit.io users type in this range.

60 to 70 WPM. Faster than most. Roughly the top third. Writing feels close to thinking speed for most tasks.

70 to 80 WPM. Fast. Broadly considered proficient. Meets or exceeds the speed required by most transcription and data-entry jobs.

80 to 100 WPM. Very fast. Only 7.3 percent of TypeLit.io users exceed 80 WPM. Meets the range commonly listed for legal and medical transcription roles. This is where most "I am a fast typist" stories actually sit.

100+ WPM. Elite. 1.3 percent of TypeLit.io users. Professional court reporters and competitive speed typists. The Aalto 2018 study found the fastest individuals approached 120 WPM on a standard keyboard.

What job requirements actually look like

Office and administrative roles commonly list 40 to 60 WPM as a minimum. Data entry roles range from 45 to 80 WPM depending on volume. General transcription starts around 75 WPM; medical and legal transcription lists 80 to 100 WPM. Court reporting requires 200+ WPM but uses stenography machines, not standard keyboards.

60 WPM meets or exceeds almost every office job requirement you will encounter. See typing speed requirements by job for a detailed breakdown.

Why your number shifts day to day

WPM varies by 5 to 10 points across conditions even for the same typist. Tired typing is slower than rested typing. Typing a passage you have seen before is faster than typing unfamiliar text. One-minute tests run higher than real writing because the text is short, pre-selected, and optimised for speed.

Your real typing speed is the average across long sessions on varied text, not the peak on a 60-second drill.

How to move from 60 to 80

Volume on natural text. TypeLit.io data shows users with 1,000+ pages typed average 72.7 WPM, compared to 44.7 WPM for users with 1 to 5 pages. Inside a single book, speed rises about 16.5 percent over the first 50 pages as typists adapt to the author's rhythm.

A 2022 study by Pinet and colleagues of 1,301 university students found that structured drills were not a statistically significant predictor of typing speed. The dominant factor was total accumulated keyboard exposure. Hours on real text, not minutes on random words.

TypeLit.io tracks WPM and accuracy on every page across 80+ classic books, free. For the full dataset, see the State of Typing Report.

Short answer, one more time

60 WPM is faster than roughly 70 percent of typists and meets the requirements of almost every office role. It is not elite. It is good.

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