How many keystrokes per minute is 40 words per minute?

200 keystrokes a minute, because one word is defined as five characters by convention. The arithmetic works the same way in reverse: 300 keystrokes a minute is 60 words per minute.

How many keystrokes per minute is a good speed?

About 258 keystrokes a minute is the average measured in the largest published study, equivalent to 51.6 words per minute. Above roughly 275 you are typing faster than most office workers.

Do spaces count as keystrokes?

They do. The space is a key you have to press and it takes time, as does punctuation. Ignoring it would give an artificially low figure and make comparisons between sites impossible.

Why is my Portuguese speed lower than my English speed?

Because of dead-key accents, not because of your technique. Measured on this site's own corpora, Portuguese needs about 1.6 per cent more keystrokes than English for the same number of characters, which at 300 keystrokes a minute is 59 words per minute against 60.

Are TPM and PPM the same thing?

No. TPM is toques por minuto, keystrokes, and PPM is palavras por minuto, words. The difference is a factor of five, and confusing them is the commonest mistake when reading what a notification requires.

ANSWER

Keystrokes per minute or words per minute: what is the difference?

Keystrokes per minute count every key pressed; words per minute group every five characters into one word. The difference is a factor of five: someone typing 40 words per minute makes about 200 keystrokes per minute, and the two figures describe exactly the same speed. Brazilian editais usually state toques; international sites usually state words.

See how the Brazilian typing test is marked →

The difference, in one line

A keystroke is a key pressed, spaces and punctuation included. A word, in typing, is a conventional unit of five characters rather than a dictionary word. So the conversion is always the same: multiply words by five to get keystrokes, divide keystrokes by five to get back. 40 words per minute is 200 keystrokes. 60 is 300. If a notification asks for 200 keystrokes a minute and your practice gives you 45 words per minute, you are already above it: 45 times five is 225.

Why two units exist

The words unit exists to compare different texts. Counting real words would give a passage of short words a much higher figure than a passage of administrative vocabulary without the typist having done anything different. Dividing by five neutralises that. The keystrokes unit exists because it is what the fingers actually do, and it compares better across languages. Accented vowels typed through a dead key cost two keystrokes for one character, so the same person scores slightly lower in Portuguese when the measure is words. In keystrokes that difference nearly disappears, which is why Brazilian concursos and Spanish oposiciones prefer it.

The mistake that breaks the conversion

Converting a gross figure and comparing it against a net requirement. A gross figure counts everything you typed; a net one subtracts errors, and not always one for one. The rule is to compare figures of the same kind. Convert first, compare second, and before either, find out whether the number in front of you is gross or net. In exams where the mark comes from a fixed passage, such as the Brazilian typing test, the question does not arise in that form at all: the mark comes from characters that diverge from the original, not from a speed.

Which unit to watch, depending on why

If you are preparing for a concurso, read what your own notification says and nothing else. If it states toques, train in toques; if the format is a fixed passage with a per-character deduction, speed barely matters and accuracy is everything. If you only want to know whether you type well in general, use words per minute, because that is the unit of almost all the published research and lets you compare yourself against it. A timed test shows both side by side so you do not have to choose.

Frequently asked questions

How many keystrokes per minute is 40 words per minute?
+
200 keystrokes a minute, because one word is defined as five characters by convention. The arithmetic works the same way in reverse: 300 keystrokes a minute is 60 words per minute.
How many keystrokes per minute is a good speed?
+
About 258 keystrokes a minute is the average measured in the largest published study, equivalent to 51.6 words per minute. Above roughly 275 you are typing faster than most office workers.
Do spaces count as keystrokes?
+
They do. The space is a key you have to press and it takes time, as does punctuation. Ignoring it would give an artificially low figure and make comparisons between sites impossible.
Why is my Portuguese speed lower than my English speed?
+
Because of dead-key accents, not because of your technique. Measured on this site's own corpora, Portuguese needs about 1.6 per cent more keystrokes than English for the same number of characters, which at 300 keystrokes a minute is 59 words per minute against 60.
Are TPM and PPM the same thing?
+
No. TPM is toques por minuto, keystrokes, and PPM is palavras por minuto, words. The difference is a factor of five, and confusing them is the commonest mistake when reading what a notification requires.

KEEP EXPLORING