About TypeFast.io

TypeFast.io is a free, browser-based typing speed test built around two ideas: a clean interface that gets out of your way, and serious flexibility underneath. Most typing test sites force a tradeoff. Either a minimal interface with shallow features, or a feature-rich one buried under cluttered UI. TypeFast.io aims to deliver both.

The site started as a personal project by Casper Verswijvelt in 2020 and has been quietly maintained ever since. It's open source under the MIT license and continues to evolve based on community feedback on Discord and GitHub.

What data is collected and how it's handled lives on the privacy page; the rules for using the site live on the terms page.

Why it exists

The original motivation was simple: every typing test site I tried was either too sparse to be interesting after a week, or so cluttered with accounts, leaderboards, and competitive features that the actual test got buried. There was a clear gap for something that took the test seriously without making it a social network. The first version went live in 2020, written in a long evening, and slowly grew from there.

The site has stayed a side project on purpose. It's not optimised for growth, monetisation, or any particular metric. Ads cover hosting; the rest of the time it just runs. That has turned out to be a useful constraint — it keeps every feature decision small enough that an evening is enough to ship it, and it keeps the site honest about what it is and isn't.

Design principles

A handful of principles shape what gets built and what gets quietly declined:

• Get out of the way. The test is the product. Ads, navigation, settings, and every other piece of UI defers to the typing area. If a feature would make the test feel busier without making it better, it doesn't ship.
• Respect the user's attention. No popups, no "rate us" prompts, no email collection, no streak guilt-tripping. Open the page, type, leave. Come back when you want to.
• Local first. Your preferences, your custom word lists, your test results — everything lives in your browser and stays there. No account system, no server-side profile, nothing to leak. The privacy page covers exactly what is and isn't sent anywhere.
• Multilingual is the default, not the bolt-on. The site was multilingual from early on, with proper case folding and accent handling per language rather than a translated wrapper around English code paths.
• Be honest about measurement. The how it works page documents exactly how each number is calculated, including the edge cases. If the test can be gamed in some way, that should be visible to anyone who reads the source, not hidden as a feature.
• Open by default. Source code, issues, and most decisions live in public on GitHub. The site benefits enormously from word-list contributions and bug reports from people the operator has never met.

What makes it different

• Multilingual by default. Built-in word lists for Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, English (American and British), French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, and Uyghur — with proper language-aware comparison (case folding, accent handling) rather than bolted-on translations of an English UI. There is also a programming mode that focuses on the keywords and punctuation often found across programming languages.
• Word mode and sentence mode. Practice with random words to drill raw speed, or with real sentences to practice rhythm and punctuation.
• Custom word lists. Load your own text file from your device and the test runs against it locally. Useful for studying vocabulary, practicing code, or warming up on material you actually need to type well.
• Adjustable test duration. From a few seconds up to many minutes, with sane increments at every scale.
• Configurable scoring rules. Optionally ignore casing or diacritics, useful when you're learning a new keyboard layout or switching languages.
• Light and dark themes with system-theme follow.

What's next

The site doesn't have a fixed roadmap, but a few directions tend to surface in feedback and stay on the list:

• More built-in word lists. Each one needs careful sourcing and a native-speaker review; PRs that include both are particularly welcome.
• Better statistics across sessions, on the local device only — so you can see your trend without anything leaving your browser.
• Continued accessibility work: keyboard navigation, screen-reader support, sensible focus order, proper colour contrast.
• Continued performance work, with the test page remaining the lightest possible thing it can be.

What's already shipped is on the changelog.

If you have an idea that fits the principles above, the feedback page is the place to send it. If you'd rather build it yourself, the contribute page covers how to get started. For anything else — questions, corrections, or just a hello — drop an email.

Support

TypeFast.io is a side project run on personal time and pocket money. To cover the domain and hosting costs the site shows ads, kept as unobtrusive as possible. If you find the site useful and want to help keep it running, you can also send a small donation via PayPal:

If you'd rather give back without spending money, the contribute page lists ways to help with code, translations, and bug reports.