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The Fastest Typists in the World: Typing Speed Records Explained

The short answer

The fastest typing speed in the Guinness World Records book is 216 words per minute, set by Stella Pajunas in 1946 on an IBM electric typewriter in Chicago. The most famous sustained record belongs to Barbara Blackburn, who was listed for keeping up 150 WPM for 50 minutes. Most other numbers you’ll see online — 212, 250, even 300 WPM — need a closer look.

Stella Pajunas: 216 WPM in 1946

Guinness lists Stella Pajunas (later Mrs. Garnand) under “fastest typist on an electronic typewriter”: in an official test in 1946 she typed 216 words in one minute on an IBM machine. That’s 18 characters every second, sustained for a full minute, on hardware that had to physically strike paper. It remains the reference point for a one-minute record.

Barbara Blackburn: the 150 WPM marathon (and the 212 WPM story)

Barbara Blackburn appeared in the Guinness Book from 1976 to the mid-1980s. The book said she could maintain 150 WPM for 50 minutes — 37,500 keystrokes — and reach 170 WPM, using the Dvorak keyboard layout she had adopted in 1938. Guinness dropped the entry from its 1987 edition, explaining that records on electric and computer typewriters couldn’t be compared with any accuracy.

The “212 WPM” figure you’ll often read comes from a 1985 newspaper report in which Blackburn said she had reached that speed briefly on a computer keyboard. It was never independently tested, and the duration was never given — so treat it as a claim, not a record.

Modern typing champions

Today the fastest typists compete online and at live events. In 2010 the first Ultimate Typing Championship took place at the SXSW festival in Austin; it was won by Sean Wrona. On online racing sites, top typists post short sprints far above the classic records — but those runs are usually a few seconds long on short, familiar sentences, so they aren’t comparable with a one-minute or fifty-minute test on unseen text.

How do normal typists compare?

A large study by Aalto University and the University of Cambridge measured 168,960 volunteers: the average was 51.56 WPM, and the fastest participants reached 120 WPM or more. In other words, 100 WPM already puts you ahead of roughly 97% of typists — and the record holders above are in a category of their own.

Want to see where you stand? Enter your speed in the average typing speed calculator, or take the 1-minute typing test to get a fresh number.

What the fastest typists have in common

  • They touch type. In the Aalto study, fast typists used 8.4 fingers on average, slow typists 5.3.
  • They make fewer errors. Speed and accuracy go up together; nobody gets fast by correcting constantly.
  • They overlap keystrokes. Fast typists often press the next key before releasing the previous one (“rollover”).
  • They practise on real text. Records are set on prose with capitals and punctuation, not on lists of easy words — try the paragraph typing test for that.

How to get faster yourself

You don’t need a record attempt to benefit from the same habits. Learn the home row with the free touch typing lessons, aim for 95%+ accuracy before pushing speed, and test yourself on longer runs — the 5-minute test shows the speed you can actually hold.