How Typing Speed Is Measured

Words per minute

A "word" in typing measurement is not a real word. It is a fixed five characters, a convention that has been in use since typewriter tests, and it exists so that typing "a" and typing "extraordinary" contribute proportionally to their length rather than counting the same.

Raw WPM is your total characters divided by five, divided by the minutes elapsed:

Raw WPM = characters / 5 / minutes

Net WPM subtracts the mistakes you left standing:

Net WPM = Raw WPM - (uncorrected errors / minutes)

The penalty is per minute, which means the same number of mistakes costs proportionally more in a short test than a long one. That is intentional: in a fifteen-second test, five errors represent a much larger share of your work.

Accuracy

Accuracy = correct keystrokes / total keystrokes x 100

Accuracy counts what you actually pressed, not how the text ended up looking. If you type the wrong letter and then fix it, that mistake still counts against accuracy - because you did make it. What correcting changes is your net WPM, since the error is no longer standing in the final text.

This is why you will see accuracy below 100% on a test you finished perfectly. Both figures are telling you something real: one about your keystrokes, one about your output.

Corrected and uncorrected errors

A corrected error is a mistake you noticed and fixed. It costs you time.

An uncorrected error is a mistake left in the finished text. It costs you time and net WPM both.

Most people improve fastest by reducing errors rather than by trying to move their fingers faster, because every correction costs at least three keystrokes: the wrong one, the delete, and the right one.

Consistency

Consistency measures how even your pace was, expressed as a percentage where 100 means perfectly steady. It is calculated from the variation in your speed across the test, scaled so that fast and slow typists are judged on the same basis.

A high score means you sustained one pace. A low score means you burst and stalled. Two people can finish with identical WPM and completely different consistency, and the steadier one will usually be more reliable under pressure.