WPM Conversion Chart: Characters per Minute to WPM as PDF

Characters per minute divided by 5 gives words per minute (WPM). 200 characters per minute are 40 WPM, 300 characters are 60 WPM. Five characters count as one word, spaces included.

Characters per minute and WPM

• 100 characters - 20 WPM
• 150 characters - 30 WPM, below average
• 200 characters - 40 WPM, office minimum
• 250 characters - 50 WPM, solid office level
• 300 characters - 60 WPM, good, assistant level
• 350 characters - 70 WPM, fast
• 400 characters - 80 WPM, very fast

Keystrokes per hour

Data entry often counts per hour (KPH): characters per minute times 60.

• 200 per minute - 12,000 per hour
• 250 per minute - 15,000 per hour
• 300 per minute - 18,000 per hour
• 400 per minute - 24,000 per hour

Typing time for 500 words

• 30 WPM - 16 minutes 40
• 40 WPM - 12 minutes 30
• 50 WPM - 10 minutes
• 60 WPM - 8 minutes 20
• 80 WPM - 6 minutes 15

Pro tip

Some tests count keystrokes instead of characters, so a capital letter counts twice. The same text can therefore give slightly different numbers on different tests.

Next step

Get your own number from the typing speed test in a minute. How a typing test works and what a good score is, the guide explains. The page on average typing speed shows where it stands, and typing speed for jobs shows what employers ask for. How to get faster is in the guide to learning touch typing.

Sources

• Words per minute (Wikipedia) - standard word of five characters, spaces included.