150 WPM is elite, faster than more than 99.9% of typists and beyond any job requirement.
150 WPM is at the elite level and faster than more than 99.9% of the 168,000 typists measured in the largest typing study. Take the test above to see your own percentile and a full diagnosis.
What 150 WPM means in practice
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Level | Elite |
| Faster than | more than 99.9% of typists |
| Characters per minute | 750 |
| Keystrokes per hour | 45,000 |
| Words per hour | 9,000 |
| Time to type a 500-word essay | 3.3 minutes |
| Time to type a 2,000-word report | 13 minutes |
Is 150 WPM good?
150 WPM is elite, faster than more than 99.9% of typists and beyond any job requirement.
Jobs where 150 WPM meets typical requirements
How to get from 150 to 160 WPM
- Push consistency above 80% on your results.
- Practice hard words and code for awkward reaches.
- Alternate 15-second sprints with long tests.
150 WPM on the grade scale
| Grade | Speed | Faster than | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 0 to 29 WPM | 0.5% of typists | Usually looking at the keys or typing with two to four fingers. Touch typing lessons give the biggest gains here. |
| Below average | 30 to 44 WPM | 14% of typists | Comfortable for messages and short emails. A few weeks of daily practice usually moves people into the average band. |
| Average | 45 to 59 WPM | 37% of typists | The speed of a typical computer user. Meets most office requirements, including the 40 WPM federal clerk-typist standard. |
| Above average | 60 to 74 WPM | 66% of typists | Faster than about two thirds of typists. Meets typical requirements for data entry, chat support and most administrative roles. |
| Fast | 75 to 89 WPM | 88% of typists | Faster than about 9 in 10 typists. Competitive for transcription, legal and executive assistant roles. |
| Expert | 90 to 119 WPM | 97% of typists | Fewer than 3 in 100 typists reach this band. Speed is no longer the limit for any common job. |
| Elite (you are here) | 120+ WPM | more than 99.9% of typists | Competition-level typing. Very few people ever sustain this speed on varied text. |
How 150 WPM compares
- Versus the average: the average typist reaches about 52 WPM, so 150 WPM is 98 WPM above average.
- Versus 140 WPM: 150 WPM is 7% faster and saves 29 seconds on every 1,000 words.
- Versus 160 WPM: reaching 160 WPM would save another 25 seconds per 1,000 words and lift you above more than 99.9% of typists.
150 WPM in real life
| Task | Words | At 150 WPM |
|---|---|---|
| A short email | 120 | 48 seconds |
| A cover letter | 350 | 2 minutes 20 seconds |
| A one-page memo | 500 | 3 minutes 20 seconds |
| A 1,000-word article | 1,000 | 6 minutes 40 seconds |
| A 5-page school essay (double-spaced) | 1,250 | 8 minutes 20 seconds |
| A 2,000-word report | 2,000 | 13 minutes |
| A 10-page paper (double-spaced) | 2,500 | 16 minutes |
| A 50,000-word novel draft | 50,000 | 5 hours 33 minutes |
At 150 WPM you type about 9,000 words per hour, or roughly 18 single-spaced pages per hour of pure typing.
Accuracy changes everything
Speed means little if you have to go back and fix it. At 150 WPM, every percentage point of accuracy adds or removes errors like this:
| Accuracy | Errors per minute at this pace | What it does to you |
|---|---|---|
| 99% | about 7.5 | Excellent. Errors are rare enough to ignore. |
| 97% | about 22.5 | Good. Most tests accept this. |
| 95% | about 37.5 | Good. Most tests accept this. |
| 92% | about 60.0 | Borderline. Many employer tests start deducting here. |
| 90% | about 75.0 | Too many errors. Slow down until accuracy recovers. |
Employers usually look at net speed and accuracy together, so 142 WPM at 95% accuracy can lose to 148 WPM at 99%.
A 4-week plan from 150 WPM
| Week | Daily routine (15 minutes) | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15-second sprints at full speed, then 1-minute tests | Raw speed up, accuracy above 97% |
| 2 | Hard words, punctuation and numbers | No drop in speed on symbols |
| 3 | Pace caret 5 WPM above your best, 3-minute tests | 153 WPM average |
| 4 | Code or quote mode for awkward reaches, one 5-minute test | 158 WPM average, consistency above 80% |
Typical mistakes at the elite level
- Keyboard limits: some keyboards miss fast rollovers. Check yours with our keyboard ghosting test.
More questions about 150 WPM
How many characters per minute is 150 WPM? 750 characters per minute, because a standard word is five characters including spaces.
How many words can I type in an hour at 150 WPM? About 9,000 words of pure typing. With breaks and thinking time, real output is lower.
How many keystrokes per hour is 150 WPM? About 45,000 keystrokes per hour (KPH), the unit many data entry employers use.
How long would it take to type a 10-page double-spaced paper at 150 WPM? About 16 minutes for 2,500 words, not counting research and editing.
What grade is 150 WPM? Elite. It is faster than more than 99.9% of the 168,000 typists in the largest published typing study.
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Frequently asked questions
Is 150 WPM good?
150 WPM is elite and faster than more than 99.9% of typists. It meets the 40 WPM requirement used for federal clerk-typist jobs.
How many words per hour is 150 WPM?
150 WPM is 9,000 words per hour, or about 45,000 keystrokes per hour.
How long does it take to go from 150 to 160 WPM?
Most people gain about 10 WPM in 3 to 6 weeks of focused daily practice. Training your slowest keys and letter pairs speeds this up.