Step 1 · Typing test

Type the passage below into the box. The timer starts with your first keystroke and stops when you reach the end, or when you press Done.

Most of what we write in a day is short and practical: a reply to a client, a note for the team, a quick update on a project. None of it is hard to say out loud, but all of it takes time to type.
Typing speed–
Accuracy–
Step 2 · Speaking test

Press Start reading, read the passage aloud at your normal pace, then press I’m done. Nothing is recorded: the page doesn’t use your microphone, it just times you.

When I sit down to write an email, I usually know exactly what I want to say. The slow part is getting it from my head onto the screen. I type a sentence, fix a typo, change a word, and then lose my train of thought. Saying it out loud is different. The words come out in the order I think them, and the whole message is done before I would have finished the first paragraph.

Speaking speed–
Your result
Speaking compared with typing–
Time you could get back
–

a month, speaking instead of typing (22 workdays).

A rough estimate, not a promise: spoken text still needs a quick read before you send it. Want to plug in your own numbers instead? Use the Typing Tax Calculator.

This test runs entirely in your browser. No audio is recorded and nothing you type is sent anywhere.

How the test works

Typing speed uses the standard words-per-minute formula: every five characters you type, including spaces, count as one word, divided by the minutes it took. Accuracy compares your words with the passage, word by word.

Speaking speed is the number of words in the passage divided by the time you took to read it aloud. Because the page only times you, it measures reading speed, which is close to how fast you’d dictate something you already have in mind.

What’s a normal typing speed and speaking speed?

It varies a lot from person to person, so the best number is your own, which is why this test exists. As a rough guide, about 40 words per minute is a common figure for everyday typing, and around 130 words per minute is a common figure for relaxed conversational speech. Those are the same starting values our Typing Tax Calculator uses.

Why the gap matters

If you write a lot of email, messages, notes or AI prompts, the difference between your two numbers is time you spend at the keyboard every day. Dictation turns that time back into talking. The catch with most dictation is the cleanup: filler words, missing punctuation and misheard names. That’s the part a good dictation app should handle for you.

Turn your speaking speed into finished text

VybeScript is a dictation app for Mac that runs entirely on your computer. Press a hotkey in any app, speak, and clean text appears where your cursor is. It removes “um” and false starts, can tighten or formalize what you said, and learns your names and jargon. Speech recognition and rewriting both run on your Mac, so your voice never goes to a server. (The Clean, Polish and Formal styles need macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence turned on.)

See pricing · Compare Mac dictation apps · Try the filler word counter

Questions

For most people, yes, often by a wide margin. Common rough figures are about 40 words per minute typing and about 130 speaking, but your own numbers are what count. Take the test above to measure both.
No. The page never asks for microphone access. The speaking test is a stopwatch: you press start, read aloud, and press stop. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere.
For typing, the standard method: characters typed divided by five, divided by minutes. For speaking, the words in the passage divided by the minutes you took to read it aloud.
Enter how many words you write on a typical workday and the result card estimates the hours per month, based on your two measured speeds and 22 workdays. It’s an estimate: dictated text still needs a quick read before you send it.