Touch typing—typing without looking at the keyboard—is one of the most practical skills you can build if you spend hours at a computer. But popular articles often overstate how much faster touch typists are. A careful reading of the research paints a more nuanced, and more useful, picture.

What touch typing is

Touch typing assigns each key to a specific finger and trains muscle memory so keystrokes become automatic. The goal is not memorising every key position in your head, but building motor patterns that work without visual guidance.

That distinction matters when you read speed comparisons.

Speed: touch typists are faster, but not always by much

In a widely cited study, Gordon Logan and colleagues at Vanderbilt University compared standard (touch) typists with nonstandard typists who used their own finger patterns, often including hunt-and-peck.

When both groups could see the keyboard:

• Standard typists averaged about 80 words per minute (WPM)
• Nonstandard typists averaged about 72 WPM

That is a real difference, but smaller than many typing-course adverts suggest. The same research team noted that skilled two-finger typists could reach around 60 WPM—enough to pass common typing tests.

The gap widens when visual feedback is removed. Nonstandard typists rely more on looking at the keys, so their speed and accuracy drop more when the keyboard is hidden or lighting is poor. Touch typists maintain performance because typing no longer depends on seeing each key.

Sources: Vanderbilt University (2016), Association for Psychological Science summary

Accuracy: where touch typing shows a clearer edge

In the same line of research, standard typists maintained roughly 94% accuracy compared with about 83% for nonstandard typists, especially when they could not watch the keyboard.

Fewer errors means less time correcting mistakes, re-reading sentences, and fixing typos in code or email. For many people, accuracy gains matter as much as raw speed.

Everyday typing speeds in large datasets

Large-scale typing studies help put individual scores in context:

• An analysis of more than 168,000 online typing-test sessions reported an average of about 52 WPM (Dhakal et al., 2018)
• An earlier lab study of everyday typists found averages around 33–40 net WPM (Feit et al., CHI 2016)
• Surveys of the general adult population commonly cite ~40 WPM as a typical figure

So if you type around 40 WPM today, you are near the population average—not behind in any unusual way.

Cognitive load: the hidden benefit

Logan's team also found that when typists compose original text rather than copy from a page, speeds drop for everyone—a skilled touch typist who reached 78 WPM when copying fell to about 45 WPM when composing.

That is still an important finding: when you are thinking and writing at the same time, automatic typing frees mental bandwidth. Hunt-and-peck typists split attention between content and key-finding, which makes long-form writing and note-taking more tiring.

Time savings: useful, but be sceptical of marketing maths

Some typing websites publish dramatic time-savings figures based on proprietary user data. Treat those as illustrations, not peer-reviewed outcomes.

A more conservative approach: if you type several hours per day and improve from 40 to 55 WPM with fewer errors, you may save meaningful time over a year—but the exact number depends on your job, how much you compose versus edit, and your starting accuracy.

Who benefits most?

Touch typing tends to help most if you:

• Write emails, reports, or code for several hours daily
• Take notes while listening in meetings or lectures
• Work on shared or unfamiliar keyboards where you cannot rely on muscle memory alone
• Want to reduce neck strain from constantly looking down at the keys

If you only type short messages occasionally, the return on practice time will be smaller.

How long does it take?

Most structured courses aim for 40–60 WPM with solid accuracy over 8–12 weeks of short daily sessions. Progress varies with prior habits and consistency. See our guide on how long it takes to learn touch typing for a realistic timeline.

Getting started

1. Learn home row finger placement
2. Practise accuracy before speed
3. Use short daily sessions rather than occasional long ones

Ready to practise? Start with our touch typing courses or take a speed test to measure your baseline.

FAQ

Is touch typing worth learning in 2026?

Yes, if you type regularly for work or study. The research supports better accuracy, less dependence on looking at the keyboard, and lower cognitive load—even when raw speed gains are modest.

Can hunt-and-peck typists be fast?

Yes. Practised hunt-and-peck typists can exceed 60 WPM when they can see the keyboard. Touch typing's advantage is consistency when you cannot.

What is a good typing speed?

For everyday office work, 50–60 WPM with high accuracy is efficient. See average typing speed for benchmarks by role.