What is WPM? Gross speed, net speed and accuracy explained

WPM, words per minute, is the standard measure of typing speed. It sounds simple, but tests calculate it in slightly different ways, which is why the same person can score differently on two sites.

Why a "word" is five characters

Real words vary in length, so a passage full of short words would make anyone look fast. To keep results comparable, typing tests count every five characters, including spaces and punctuation, as one word. Typing "the cat sat." is 12 characters, or 2.4 standard words, whatever the actual word count.

Gross WPM

Gross or raw WPM counts everything you typed, right or wrong:

Gross WPM = (all characters typed ÷ 5) ÷ minutes

It shows how fast your fingers move but rewards careless typing.

Net WPM

Net WPM takes mistakes into account. A common formula subtracts uncorrected errors per minute from gross WPM:

Net WPM = gross WPM − (uncorrected errors ÷ minutes)

Typing Toolkit uses a closely related approach: only correct characters count towards speed. Both methods punish mistakes, which is what employers and teachers usually care about.

Worked example

The net formula subtracts a whole word for each error, so it penalises mistakes more heavily. Whichever method a test uses, the way to raise every number is the same: fewer errors.

Characters per minute and keystrokes per hour

Some tests report characters per minute (CPM), which is simply WPM × 5. Data-entry and numeric keypad tests often use keystrokes per hour (KPH). 50 WPM equals 250 CPM, or 15,000 characters per hour.

Comparing your results fairly

• Compare tests of the same length. Short tests give higher scores.
• Compare tests that count mistakes the same way.
• Use the average of several tests, not your best single run.

Reviewed October 2026 · How we write our guides · Suggest a correction