Keystrokes Per Hour (KPH)
Convert keystrokes per hour to words per minute and back, read a job requirement correctly, and see the few published benchmarks expressed in KPH.
Keystrokes per hour (KPH) counts the characters you type in an hour. It converts from words per minute with two formulas: CPM = WPM x 5, because a typing word is five characters including its space, and KPH = WPM x 300, which is CPM x 60. So 40 WPM is 200 CPM and 12,000 KPH, and a 10,000 KPH requirement is about 33 WPM.
KPH calculator
Type a speed into any one box and the other two follow. Commas are fine, so you can paste a figure straight from a job advert.
Want your own figure? The data entry typing test reports keystrokes per hour first.
Keystrokes per hour, usually shortened to KPH, is the unit data entry and clerical job adverts use when they describe the typing speed they want. Typing tests, on the other hand, report words per minute. The two describe the same thing at different scales: one counts characters across an hour, the other counts five-character words across a minute. Once you know the two multipliers, any figure in one unit turns into the other in a few seconds, and the calculator above does it for you in either direction.
This page explains what a keystroke is, which is less obvious than it sounds, gives a full conversion chart from 20 to 100 WPM, shows how to read the figure in a job advert, and lists the few benchmarks that have a published source behind them. Every other number here is arithmetic you can check with a pocket calculator.
What counts as a keystroke?
In principle a keystroke is one press of one key. In practice, employers and testing software do not agree on which presses count. Some count only the characters that end up in the record: letters, digits and punctuation. Some count every key including the space bar, Tab, Enter and the numeric keypad. Some testing tools count corrections as well, so a deleted character costs two keystrokes rather than none. Whether Shift counts varies too, even though a capital letter is still only one character on the screen.
That is why a KPH requirement is best treated as a close guide rather than an exact target. Two tests can time the same person typing the same text and report KPH figures a few percent apart, simply because one counts the spaces between fields and the other does not. When an advert gives an accuracy rule alongside the speed, the accuracy rule usually decides more applications than the speed does.
TypeBurst counts the way characters per minute counts: correct characters, including the space that ends each correctly typed word, and nothing else. Backspaces, Shift and characters you left wrong add nothing. KPH on this site is therefore exactly CPM x 60, the rule the methodology page documents for every score.
From WPM to CPM to KPH, step by step
A word in a typing score is not a word of English. It is a fixed block of five characters, the space included, so that a passage of short words and a passage of long ones produce comparable results. That gives the first formula: CPM = WPM x 5. A typist at 50 WPM is producing 250 characters a minute.
An hour has sixty minutes, which gives the second: KPH = CPM x 60. Put the two together and KPH = WPM x 5 x 60, or WPM x 300. Going the other way, divide: WPM = KPH / 300 and CPM = KPH / 60. Words per hour, the figure transcription work is sometimes quoted in, is simply WPM x 60.
Rounding is the only place where care is needed. Most KPH requirements are round thousands, and most of those do not divide evenly by 300, so the matching WPM has a fraction. Round it up, not down, when you are deciding whether you meet a bar: 33 WPM is 9,900 KPH, just under a 10,000 KPH requirement, while 34 WPM is 10,200 and clears it.
How to read a KPH requirement in a job advert
Divide the figure by 300 to get the typing speed it describes. An advert asking for 8,000 KPH is asking for about 27 WPM; 10,000 KPH is about 33 WPM; 12,000 KPH is exactly 40 WPM; 15,000 KPH is exactly 50 WPM. The second chart below lists the round requirements between 7,000 and 15,000 KPH with the characters per minute each one means and the whole WPM that clears it.
Then look for three things the number alone does not tell you. First, whether the test is alphanumeric, meaning mixed letters and figures, or numeric only on the keypad: keypad entry of figures is a different skill from typing words, and the same person can score very differently on each. Second, the accuracy rule, often written as a percentage or as a maximum number of errors. Third, the length of the test. A figure held for five minutes is harder to reach than the same figure held for one, so a short practice score flatters you.
If the advert gives words per minute instead, the conversion runs the other way: multiply by 300 to compare it with a KPH score you already have, or type it into the calculator above.
Benchmarks with a published source
Very few typing requirements are published with a source you can check, and this page quotes only those. The clearest is the US Office of Personnel Management qualification standard for clerical and administrative support positions. It sets a typing speed of 40 words per minute for clerk-typist and office automation roles, measured on a 5 minute sample with three or fewer errors. In keystrokes per hour that is 12,000 KPH, and over the five minutes it is 1,000 characters with no more than three of them wrong.
For context on what typists actually achieve, the largest published study of typing, by Dhakal and colleagues at CHI 2018, measured an average of 52 WPM across 168,000 volunteers, which is 15,600 KPH. Aalto University's summary of the same study puts most computer users between 30 and 60 WPM, or 9,000 to 18,000 KPH, with the fastest participants at 120 WPM, or 36,000 KPH. Those describe a volunteer sample who chose to take an online typing test; they are not pass marks, and they measured typing of English text rather than keypad entry of figures.
Anything else you read about typical data entry speeds, including figures that circulate on job boards, is either one employer's own rule or a number nobody can trace back to a measurement. The average typing speed page sets out the research behind the figures above in more detail.
Measure your own keystrokes per hour
The data entry typing test reports KPH as its headline figure. It types record fields rather than sentences: names, street lines, order references, amounts, dates and postcodes, which is much closer to real data entry than a list of common words. Expect your KPH there to sit below what your WPM predicts, because a reference code has no familiar shape for your fingers to run ahead on.
Run it at the length the employer uses if you know it, and at five minutes if you do not, since five minutes is the length of the only public standard quoted above. Every TypeBurst result also shows KPH next to gross WPM and net WPM, so you can quote whichever unit an application form asks for. If you need something to attach, the typing certificate page turns a result into a printable record.
WPM to CPM, KPH and words per hour
Each row is one speed written in four units. CPM is WPM x 5, KPH is WPM x 300 and words per hour is WPM x 60.
| Words per minute | Characters per minute | Keystrokes per hour | Words per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 WPM | 100 | 6,000 | 1,200 |
| 30 WPM | 150 | 9,000 | 1,800 |
| 40 WPM | 200 | 12,000 | 2,400 |
| 50 WPM | 250 | 15,000 | 3,000 |
| 60 WPM | 300 | 18,000 | 3,600 |
| 70 WPM | 350 | 21,000 | 4,200 |
| 80 WPM | 400 | 24,000 | 4,800 |
| 90 WPM | 450 | 27,000 | 5,400 |
| 100 WPM | 500 | 30,000 | 6,000 |
Arithmetic from the five-character word, not a measurement. KPH here counts every character including spaces, the way TypeBurst counts it.
Common KPH requirements, converted
Divide a requirement by 300 for WPM and by 60 for CPM. The last column is the smallest whole WPM that meets it.
| Requirement | WPM it describes | Characters per minute | Whole WPM that clears it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7,000 KPH | 23.3 | 117 | 24 |
| 8,000 KPH | 26.7 | 133 | 27 |
| 9,000 KPH | 30 | 150 | 30 |
| 10,000 KPH | 33.3 | 167 | 34 |
| 11,000 KPH | 36.7 | 183 | 37 |
| 12,000 KPH | 40 | 200 | 40 |
| 13,000 KPH | 43.3 | 217 | 44 |
| 15,000 KPH | 50 | 250 | 50 |
WPM rounded to one decimal place and CPM to whole characters. The requirements are round example figures, not a survey of what employers ask for.
Frequently asked questions
How many keystrokes per hour is 40 WPM?
12,000. Multiply WPM by 300: 40 x 5 gives 200 characters a minute, and 200 x 60 gives 12,000 keystrokes an hour. It is also the speed the US Office of Personnel Management sets for clerk-typist and office automation roles, measured over five minutes with three or fewer errors.
Is 10,000 KPH good?
10,000 KPH is about 33 WPM, a modest and achievable speed. It sits inside the 30 to 60 WPM band Aalto University reports for most computer users, below the 52 WPM average measured across 168,000 volunteers, and below the 12,000 KPH that the 40 WPM federal clerical standard works out to. Whether it is enough depends on the job, so read the employer's accuracy rule as well.
Do spaces count as keystrokes?
On TypeBurst, yes: the space that ends a correctly typed word is one keystroke, exactly as it is one character in CPM. Employers differ. Some count every key pressed, some only the characters stored in the record, so check how the test you are taking counts before comparing figures closely.
How do I convert KPH to WPM?
Divide by 300. 9,000 KPH is 30 WPM, 15,000 KPH is 50 WPM and 18,000 KPH is 60 WPM. If the answer has a fraction, round up to find the whole-number speed that meets the requirement: 8,000 KPH is 26.7 WPM, so 27 WPM clears it.
Does a backspace count as a keystroke?
Not on TypeBurst, where only correct characters count, so a correction costs you time but adds nothing. Some employer tests count every key press including Backspace, which can make their KPH figure higher than the number of characters that actually end up stored.
Is KPH on the numeric keypad the same as typing KPH?
The arithmetic is the same, the skill is not. Entering figures on a keypad and typing words use different hand positions and different habits, so one person's numeric KPH and alphanumeric KPH can be far apart. If a job tests the keypad, practise entering figures rather than prose.
Sources
- US Office of Personnel Management, Qualification Standards for Clerical and Administrative Support Positions (typing proficiency)
- Dhakal, Feit, Kristensson & Oulasvirta, Observations on Typing from 136 Million Keystrokes, CHI 2018
- The traits of fast typists discovered by analysing 136 million keystrokes, Aalto University
- Words per minute, on the five-character word convention
Every conversion on this page is arithmetic from the five-character word; the only measured figures are the ones credited above. The KPH TypeBurst reports for your own runs is correct characters per minute x 60. Read the full measurement methodology.
Related pages
- Data entry testScored in keystrokes per hour
- Words per minuteThe formula, plus CPM and keystrokes per hour
- Typing certificateTake a test, then print a free record of it
- 5 minute testSustained speed and stamina
- Average typing speedWhat the research actually measured
- MethodologyExactly what TypeBurst counts and ignores