How long does it take to reach 40 WPM?
Short answer: For a beginner who currently types 20 to 25 WPM, reaching 40 WPM commonly takes four to ten weeks of daily practice of 15 to 30 minutes. Someone starting at 30 to 35 WPM commonly gets there in two to four weeks. The biggest factor is whether you commit to touch typing without looking at the keyboard, which slows you down at first but is what makes 40 WPM reachable.
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40 WPM is the most common target because it is the point where typing stops holding you back at work and clears the bar for most clerical tests. How long it takes to reach it depends on where you start and how you practise. Here is what learners commonly report.
Timelines by starting point
- Starting from scratch (under 15 WPM, hunt and peck): commonly 8 to 12 weeks of daily practice. The first two weeks are spent learning finger positions, during which speed may actually drop.
- Starting at 20 to 25 WPM, mostly looking at the keyboard: commonly 4 to 10 weeks. Most of the time goes into breaking the habit of looking down.
- Starting at 30 to 35 WPM, mostly touch typing: commonly 2 to 4 weeks. The remaining gap is usually numbers, punctuation and consistency over longer passages.
- Already at 40 WPM gross but not net: commonly 1 to 3 weeks of accuracy work.
These are ranges from what learners often report, not guarantees. Some people move faster, and people who practise only once a week commonly take much longer.
What actually sets the pace
Daily practice beats long sessions. Fifteen minutes every day builds muscle memory far better than two hours on Sunday. Typing is a motor skill, like a musical instrument, and motor skills need frequent repetition.
Touch typing is the whole game. Hunt-and-peck typists commonly plateau around 30 WPM no matter how long they practise, because the eyes cannot keep up. Learners who commit to not looking at the keys typically pass that ceiling within a few weeks.
Material matters. If your test uses business text with numbers and capitals, practising on simple lowercase sentences will not prepare you for it.
Keyboard and posture. A laptop keyboard on your lap and a desk keyboard at the right height produce different results. Practise on the kind of keyboard you will be tested on where you can.
A six-week plan
- Weeks 1 and 2: home row and finger discipline. Daily drills on home-row keys, then the rows above and below. Cover the keyboard or look only at the screen. Accept that speed will fall.
- Weeks 3 and 4: full keyboard and real text. Add capitals, punctuation and the number row. Switch from drills to short paragraphs. Keep accuracy at 97 percent or higher.
- Weeks 5 and 6: timed tests at full length. Take a five or ten-minute test every day, on the format of your target exam or job. Record net WPM and accuracy. Aim for the same score three days running before pushing harder.
Signs you are on track
- You no longer glance at the keyboard for letters by the end of week two.
- Accuracy sits at 97 percent or above by week four, even if speed is still in the 30s.
- Your five-minute score and your one-minute score are within 5 WPM of each other by week six.
When you reach 40
Check that you reach 40 WPM net on a ten-minute passage with unfamiliar text, not 40 gross on a one-minute sprint. That is the figure employers and exams use. Our typing tests run on that format and keep a history of your attempts so you can see the trend week by week.