How WPM is calculated
Words per minute is the standard measure of typing, reading and speaking speed: the number of words divided by the time in minutes. It lets you compare performance regardless of how long a passage is.
Enter the word count and the elapsed time (minutes and seconds), and the calculator converts the time to minutes and divides. For typing tests, "words" is often standardised as every five characters counting as one word, so spaces and punctuation are included fairly - but plain word counts work too.
Worked example
You type 450 words in 2 minutes with 5 mistakes:
Gross vs net WPM
Gross WPM counts every word you produced; net WPM subtracts your errors first, rewarding accuracy as well as speed - it is the score most typing tests report. For reference, average typing is about 40 wpm, professional typists reach 65-75, and conversational speaking sits near 130-150 wpm. Reading silently is faster, around 238 wpm. Use this tool to benchmark any of them. Everything is computed in your browser.