Live typing races

How a typing race works

Everyone in the race gets exactly the same text. There's a five-second countdown, then you type. Your avatar moves along the track as you go, so you can see who's pulling ahead and who's stuck on a comma. First to the finish wins.

You can race on a 40-word text or on a quote from a public-domain book. Quotes are harder: real punctuation, capitals and the occasional long word. The race uses whatever language you've picked in the header, so you can race in Spanish or German as easily as in English.

Three ways to race

Race with bots. Pick Easy, Medium, Hard or Very hard and the race starts at once. Bots speed up, hesitate and slow down like people do. They're clearly labelled and never ranked, so beating one doesn't count for much, but it does warm your fingers up.

Race with random people. Join the queue and race whoever else is waiting right now. Only real people race here. The race starts a few seconds after a second person joins, and if nobody turns up within a minute you can keep waiting or race bots instead.

Race with friends. Create a private room and share the link, or paste a code someone sent you to join theirs. Good for a group of friends, a class, or settling an argument in the office about who actually types faster.

What counts and what doesn't

You can race as a guest and see your result at the end of every race. If you sign in, your results count toward your race record and you earn XP for every race. The record follows you to any device. Signing in is just an email link, no password.

Wins against bots don't count toward your race record.

Racing vs. a typing test

A typing test measures you against the clock. A race measures you against people, and that changes how you type. You may find you type faster in a race than on your own, and make more mistakes trying to keep up. That's worth knowing about yourself. If your race speed is far above your test speed but your accuracy drops, your real limit is probably somewhere between the two.

Races here are short, which makes them good for a quick break or a warm-up before a longer session. For proper improvement, pair them with practice, which builds drills from the keys you miss, and with the daily challenge, where everyone types the same text all day.

How to win more races

Look at the text, not the track. It's tempting to watch the other avatars, but every glance costs you a word or two.

Don't chase the leader. If someone jumps ahead early, they may be typing faster than they can keep up, and a steady pace can reel them in by the end. A typo slows you down whichever way you deal with it, so clean typing at a speed you can hold usually beats a frantic sprint.

Warm up first. One or two races against Easy bots, or a minute on a typing test, and your first serious race won't be the one where your fingers are still cold.

Racing with a class or a team

Private rooms work well for groups. Make a room, drop the link in your class chat or team channel, and everyone types the same text at the same moment, up to twenty people at once. Pick the quote option if you'd rather race on real sentences with punctuation than on a list of words. Since nobody needs an account, people can join from any computer in a few seconds.