How to use the typing time calculator
Transcribing notes, retyping a handwritten draft or copying a document into a new system all raise the same question: how long will this take? Paste the text and this tool converts it into standard words, then divides by your typing speed to give a time in minutes and seconds.
Typing tests report speed in words per minute, but the "word" there is a convention rather than a real word. The long-standing standard counts five characters, including the space that follows, as one word, which is why a 250-character paragraph is fifty standard words no matter how long its actual words are. Both the speed and the characters-per-word figure are editable, so you can match whichever test you measured yourself on.
Characters are counted by code point, and the actual word count is shown separately so you can see how far your text sits from the five-character convention. Dense technical text with long terms takes longer than the standard-word estimate suggests.
The figure covers uninterrupted typing only, with no time for corrections, formatting or checking the source. Nothing you paste leaves your browser.
Frequently Asked Questions
Typing speed tests standardise on five characters including the following space, so that speeds are comparable across texts. The value is editable if your test used a different convention.
No. It measures continuous typing at the speed you entered. Real transcription work usually takes noticeably longer once corrections and source checking are added.