What typing speed do jobs ask for?

The speeds employers publish, from US federal and state jobs to data entry and transcription, how each test counts your errors, and how to prove your speed.

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Forty words a minute for five minutes, with no more than three errors. That is what the US federal government asks of a clerk-typist, and it is a useful number to carry around, because most published typing requirements for office work sit close to it. The ones collected in this guide run from 25 to 50 words per minute.

Speed is rarely the hard part. Forty words a minute is below the average of about 52 found in a study of 168,960 typists. The errors are harder, and every employer counts them a little differently, so this guide spends as long on scoring as on the speeds themselves.

The requirements at a glance

Rules change and differ from post to post. The announcement or bulletin for your job is the one that counts. Sources are listed at the end of this page.

US federal jobs

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which writes the qualification rules for the federal General Schedule, sets one typing speed for clerical work: 40 words per minute. It applies to clerk-typists at grades GS-2 to GS-4 and, at any grade, to office automation clerks and assistants and to any job with “(Typing)” or “(Office Automation)” after its title. A secretary (OA) or a medical support assistant (OA) at a veterans' hospital therefore carries the same requirement as a clerk-typist. Job announcements spell out how it is measured: 40 words per minute on a five-minute sample, with three or fewer errors.

Five minutes at 40 WPM is 1,000 characters, spaces and punctuation included, or 200 standard five-character words. In the four classic books CamelKeys uses for its certificate test, a word and its space average about 5.5 characters, so 1,000 characters is roughly 180 real words: a long paragraph or two of Jane Austen. Three errors in 180 words means more than 98% of the words right.

That is why the error limit is the harder half. In the 2018 keystroke study, the average typist left about 1% of characters wrong. Over 1,000 characters that is around ten wrong characters, and unless they bunch up in the same few words, that means more than three wrong words. A typist who is comfortably fast but leaves 1% of characters wrong would usually fail this test on errors, not on speed.

How you show it

OPM's rules give three ways to meet the requirement: pass a performance test, present a certificate of proficiency from a school or other organisation authorised to issue one, or certify your own speed. Test results and certificates are accepted for three years. Many announcements simply ask you to self-certify in the application questionnaire, and OPM lets agencies give self-certified applicants a performance test to check. So state the speed you reach on an ordinary day, not your best ever.

US state and local jobs

Below the federal level there is no common rule. Each state, county, city and court writes its own, and the differences in how the test is run matter more than the differences in speed.

California

California's Department of Human Resources (CalHR) publishes the clearest rules. State typing classes such as Office Assistant (Typing), Office Technician (Typing) and Secretary need 40 WPM, and Legal Secretary needs 45. You prove it with a certificate from a test that was proctored, in person or virtually, lasted at least five minutes and was issued within the last four years. CalHR does not accept certificates from tests that were not proctored or were shorter than five minutes, and state job postings add that certificates from internet typing tests are not acceptable. Any state department can also give you a typing test of its own.

Counties, cities and other states

Local employers set their own rules, even inside California. Ventura County accepts certificates from a proctored five-minute test taken within the last 24 months. The Superior Court in Kern County wants certificates from the past two years and does not accept online ones. The City of San Diego works out net speed as gross WPM minus 2 for every error, and rejects a certificate with more than five errors.

Other states pick other speeds. New Jersey's Civil Service Commission requires clerk typists to pass a five-minute typing test during the hiring process; recent postings set the pass mark at 25 net WPM, while some earlier announcements asked for 40. In Oregon, Lane County asks for 50 net WPM from clear copy at its Legal Secretary 2 level. New York State asked for 30 or 35 WPM at 96% accuracy on a five-minute keyboarding test, and a note on the state's own bulletin about the test says that since July 2025 it is no longer required for any appointment.

Office jobs: assistants, receptionists and secretaries

In public service the speed comes with the job title. A federal post with “(OA)” in its name, whether an administrative support assistant, a secretary or a medical support assistant, carries the 40 WPM rule. A California state secretary needs 40, a state legal secretary 45, and a county legal secretary can need 50. For a receptionist post, look at its classification: if it is a typing class, the typing rule applies, and if it is not, there may be no typing test at all.

Private employers have no common standard, and there is no reliable survey of what their adverts ask for. Some name a speed, some run their own test, many say nothing. If an advert names no number, aim for 40 WPM with very few errors: it is the federal line, it sits below the average typist, and it is enough for most jobs where typing is part of the day rather than the whole of it.

Data entry

Data entry is usually measured in keystrokes per hour (KPH) rather than words per minute, often on the number pad. Where public employers publish a figure it is around 9,000 to 10,000 KPH: Michigan's civil service names about 9,000 for some data coding jobs, and Ohio asks for 10,000 net keystrokes per hour in one wage records unit. 9,000 KPH is 30 WPM in typing-test terms. Typing speed for data entry explains the units, how the tests are scored and how to practise.

Transcription

Transcription companies care less about a speed figure than you might expect. TranscribeMe says it does not hire on typing speed and asks every transcriptionist to pass an entrance exam instead. Rev's own advice is that most transcriptionists type around 50 WPM and that 60 is a good goal. Court reporting is a different trade on a different keyboard: the National Court Reporters Association's Registered Professional Reporter certificate asks for 180 to 225 words per minute on a stenotype. Typing speed for transcription covers all three.

Gross speed, net speed and errors

Almost every test works out gross speed the same way: characters typed, spaces included, divided by five, divided by the minutes. Net speed is gross speed with your errors taken off, and this is where tests part company. The most common rule takes one word off for each error, which is the same as subtracting your errors per minute from your gross WPM.

Take one five-minute test. You type 1,150 characters, which is 230 standard words, so your gross speed is 46 WPM, and you leave four errors. Now score it three ways:

• One word per error: 46 − 4 ÷ 5 = 45.2 net WPM. A comfortable pass at 40.
• Two WPM per error, the City of San Diego's certificate rule: 46 − 8 = 38 net WPM. Below 40.
• A cap on errors, the federal rule: 46 WPM is well over 40, but four errors is one too many.

Same typist, same five minutes, three verdicts. Some tests use accuracy instead: New York's keyboarding test asked for 96%, and the testing company eSkill multiplies gross speed by the share of words typed correctly. What counts as one error varies as well, from a wrong word to a wrong character, with or without the mistakes you corrected. When the instructions do not say, ask. Nobody marks you down for asking how a test is scored.

CamelKeys shows a net speed that counts only the words you typed correctly, with the spaces after them, divided by five, per minute. A wrong word adds nothing, so the result lands close to the one-word-per-error rule. Its accuracy figure counts every key you pressed, including mistakes you later fixed, which is a stricter measure than the errors left at the end. WPM vs KDPH has more worked examples of gross and net speed.

How to prove your speed

Self-certification. Federal applications often just ask you to confirm that you meet the speed. It costs nothing and needs no paperwork, but it is only as good as the number behind it, and the agency can test you.

A proctored certificate. California and many counties want a certificate from a supervised test: someone watches you type, in person or over video, and the certificate is usually signed. CalCareers job postings list state agencies, the state's job centres, adult education centres and business colleges among the places that give these tests. Check the local rules before you book one: how recent the certificate must be, how long the test must last and how net speed is worked out.

The employer's own test. Many employers, New Jersey's civil service among them, test you themselves, at the interview or online through a testing company. A certificate from somewhere else does not change that.

The CamelKeys certificate. The free CamelKeys typing certificate comes from a five-minute test on a passage from a classic book. Every key press is replayed on the server, and the certificate has its own page that anyone with the link can open. It says whether you reached 40 WPM with three errors or fewer, the federal line. It is not proctored: it proves the test was typed as recorded, not who typed it, so it does not meet rules that ask for a supervised test, such as California's, and an employer may still give you its own. Where it helps is self-certification, a CV, a LinkedIn profile, and private employers who ask what your speed is. A link they can check beats a number they have to take on trust.

How much margin you need

Aim for about 20% above the requirement in practice, on five-minute tests of real text with capitals and punctuation. An unfamiliar keyboard, nerves and a harder passage all cost speed on the day, and one-minute tests on common words flatter everyone. For a 40 WPM job, that means practising until 48 WPM with three errors or fewer feels routine. Start with the 5-minute typing test. If errors are what stop you, read how to improve typing accuracy before you chase speed.

Sources

• US Office of Personnel Management, General Schedule Qualification Standards: group coverage qualification standard for clerical and administrative support positions (typing proficiency requirements), and General Schedule Qualification Policies (performance test or self-certification).
• USAJOBS and USA Staffing announcements and questionnaires for office automation, secretary (OA) and medical support assistant (OA) posts (40 WPM on a five-minute sample with three or fewer errors).
• California Department of Human Resources, “Typing Certification Requirements”, CalCareers, and CalCareers exam bulletins for Secretary and Legal Secretary.
• County of Ventura Human Resources, typing certificate requirements; Superior Court of California, County of Kern, typing certificates; City of San Diego, typing certificate form.
• New Jersey Civil Service Commission, clerk typist job postings; New York State Department of Civil Service, keyboarding test announcements and General Information Bulletin 16-05; Lane County, Oregon, Legal Secretary class specification.
• Michigan Civil Service Commission, Data Coding Operator job specification; Ohio Department of Administrative Services, Data Entry Operator classification specification.
• TranscribeMe, “How to Become a Legal Transcriptionist at TranscribeMe”; Rev, “Practice Transcription & Improve Your Skills”; National Court Reporters Association, Registered Professional Reporter (RPR).
• eSkill, score calculations for typing and data entry questions.
• Dhakal, Feit, Kristensson and Oulasvirta, “Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes”, CHI 2018.