What typing speed do call center jobs need?

Contents

• The average typing speed
• What employers ask for
• How WPM and accuracy are scored
• Phone vs keyboard
• A two-week practice plan
• Take the test
• How StaffPick shows your verified score
• Questions people ask
• Sources

If you're applying for call center, chat support, data entry or virtual assistant work, expect a typing test. This guide gives you the real numbers behind "a good typing speed", explains how tests score you, and ends with a two-week practice plan and a free typing test for call center and remote jobs.

The average typing speed

A large 2018 study recorded 136 million keystrokes from 168,960 volunteers who took an online typing test (Dhakal and colleagues, presented at the CHI 2018 conference). On a computer keyboard, it found:

The average typist also left about one mistake in every 100 characters uncorrected (1.167%).

One caution: the volunteers chose to take the test, 68% were in the US, their average age was 24.5, and over 70% had taken a typing course. Read these numbers as a rough guide, not as the average for every adult.

So what is a good typing speed? About 50 words per minute (WPM) is average. 40 WPM with very few mistakes meets the best-known public standard for typing jobs, which is next. Above about 78 WPM puts you in the study's top 10%.

What employers ask for

There is no official typing standard for BPO or call center jobs. Each employer sets its own pass mark. Be careful with exact cut-offs you see in forums and social media posts: they may be old, or true for one company only. If you're invited to a test, ask what it measures: speed, accuracy or both.

The clearest public standard comes from the US government. Its Office of Personnel Management (OPM) says clerk-typist and office automation jobs need 40 WPM, "based on a 5 minute sample with three or fewer errors". Data transcriber jobs need 20 to 25 WPM, depending on the grade.

What the job involves matters more than any single number:

• Chat and email support. You type all day, sometimes in more than one chat at a time. Speed and accuracy both show in every reply.
• Phone support. You type notes while you listen and talk. Typing without looking at the keys matters more than a high top speed.
• Data entry. You type names, numbers, codes and addresses, not sentences. Accuracy matters most, because one wrong digit can send an order to the wrong place.
• Virtual assistant work. Emails, documents and spreadsheets. Clear writing matters as much as speed.

Our guidance: if you can type 40 WPM with very few mistakes, you meet the best-known public standard. For chat support or data entry, where typing is most of the job, aim higher.

How WPM and accuracy are scored

In typing research, and on most typing tests, a "word" means five characters, including spaces and punctuation. "Thank you, Sam." is 15 characters, so it counts as three words.

So WPM is the characters you type, divided by 5, divided by the minutes. Type 1,000 characters in 5 minutes and that's 200 words in 5 minutes: 40 WPM.

Tests treat mistakes in different ways:

• Gross speed counts every character you type, right or wrong.
• Net speed takes mistakes off, so errors lower your WPM.
• Accuracy is the share of characters you typed correctly. 98% accuracy means 2 wrong characters in every 100.

OPM's rule of three or fewer errors in five minutes is strict. At 40 WPM, five minutes is about 1,000 characters, so three errors works out to about 99.7% accuracy.

On StaffPick's test, only characters that match the passage count toward your WPM, and your accuracy is the share of what you typed that was right. Mistakes show in red as you type. Fix a missed or extra letter straight away: the test compares your text with the passage letter by letter, so one missing letter can push everything after it out of line.

Phone vs keyboard

A 2019 study of 37,370 volunteers typing on phones found an average of 36.17 WPM, about 15 WPM below the keyboard study. They were different people in a different study, so treat the gap as a rough guide, not an exact one.

What this means for you:

• If you'll work on a computer, practise and take tests on that keyboard. Your phone speed won't tell you much.
• If you only have a phone for now, a cheap USB or Bluetooth keyboard that connects to it is a good way to practise.
• StaffPick asks you to take the scored typing test on a computer, because phone keyboards are slower and businesses compare scores. You can do the English test and role quiz on your phone first, then come back to typing on a computer.

A two-week practice plan

15 to 20 minutes a day is enough. Write down your WPM and accuracy every time, so you can see the change.

Two habits help a lot: keep your eyes on the screen instead of your hands, and keep a steady rhythm instead of rushing and stopping.

Take the test

Use StaffPick's free typing test to see where you are. It's free with no sign-up, counts five characters as a word, and shows your accuracy as well as your speed.

Before you start:

• Use the computer and keyboard you'll work on.
• Sit somewhere quiet, with your phone out of reach.
• Do a short practice run to warm up.
• Read the first line before the clock starts.

If you're preparing for one employer's test, ask what it looks like: how long it is, whether it counts gross or net speed, and whether you can fix mistakes.

How StaffPick shows your verified score

A free test tells you where you are. Employers trust a score they can check. When you build a free StaffPick profile, you take a scored typing test, and the result goes on your profile.

How the profile test works:

• It runs for 60 seconds, after a 3, 2, 1 countdown. The clock starts on your first key.
• You can do a 30-second practice run first, on a different passage. It's never scored.
• Stay on the page. If you switch tabs or apps, the run stops and doesn't count, and you can start again.
• You get one retake, 14 days later. The retake score replaces the first one.

Your profile then shows your WPM, your accuracy and the date you took the test, next to your English level and your role quiz score:

English C1

82

Typing

64wpm

Customer support quiz

88

Businesses in the US, UK and Australia look at these scores when they shortlist. Joining is free, and StaffPick never takes a cut of your pay.

For the English part, read what CEFR levels mean for jobs. If you're just starting out, see how to become a virtual assistant.

Questions people ask

How many WPM is required for BPO jobs?

There is no official BPO standard. Each employer sets its own pass mark, so ask what their test measures. The best-known public benchmark is the US government's 40 WPM for clerk-typist jobs, with three or fewer errors in five minutes. For chat support or data entry, where typing is most of the work, aim higher.

How do I pass a 1-minute typing test?

Warm up with a practice run, read the first line before the clock starts and keep your eyes on the screen, not your hands. Type at a steady pace and fix a missed letter straight away. Mistakes lower your score, so steady beats rushed.

Where can I find free typing tests for employment?

StaffPick's typing test at staffpick.ai/tools/typing-test is free, needs no sign-up and counts five characters as a word, the standard used in typing research. To show employers a verified score, take the scored test on a free StaffPick profile.

What is a good typing speed?

In a study of 168,960 typists, the average was 51.56 words per minute on a keyboard, and the fastest 10% typed above about 78. Typing 40 WPM with very few mistakes meets the US government's standard for clerk-typist jobs.

Sources

Each figure in this guide comes from one of these pages, checked on 27 Oct 2026. Prices and rules change, so open the source before you rely on a number.

1. 1Dhakal et al., Observations on typing from 136 million keystrokes (CHI 2018): project pageuserinterfaces.aalto.fi
2. 2Dhakal et al. (CHI 2018): the paper in the ACM Digital Librarydl.acm.org
3. 3Palin et al. (MobileHCI 2019): typing on phones, a study with 37,370 volunteersdoi.org
4. 4US Office of Personnel Management: General Schedule qualification standards (typing requirements)opm.gov
5. 5Scott MacKenzie, York University: a note on calculating text entry speedyorku.ca