Mechanical Keyboard Typing Test – Same Text on Every Board

How it works

This mechanical keyboard typing test opens on the same passage every visit, so two boards, or two sets of switches, are timed on equal text. The first four passages each use all 26 letters; later ones add punctuation, then digits.

Read the full guide

A fair comparison

Random words change with every run, so a better score may only mean an easier text. Here the opening passage, Inside a Key Switch, never changes; keep the length the same on both keyboards too. A finished passage rolls into the next.

What the passages are about

The thing under your fingers: how a switch closes a circuit, why contacts bounce, what hot-swap sockets are, what keycaps are made of, how rollover is counted.

Questions and answers

Do you type faster on a mechanical keyboard?

No source this page could check settles it, so no figure is given. Measure it on your own two keyboards, more than once each, and compare accuracy as well as WPM.

How do I compare speed typing on different keyboards?

Keep everything but the keyboard the same, in one sitting, and alternate the boards run by run: you learn a passage as you repeat it, and the second keyboard would otherwise get the credit.

Does a typing test show whether every key works?

Only the keys its text uses, and the result is a speed, not a check. To light each key and see that it registers, use the keyboard tester.

Does n-key rollover matter for typing?

A keyboard with n-key rollover reports every key however many are held. Fast typists sometimes press a key before releasing the last, and that overlap is where limited rollover can matter. The n-key rollover test counts what yours reports.

All 12 passages

Every letter key 4

Full Size and Smaller Leaving out the number pad is the most common way to shrink a keyboard; the result is called tenkeyless. All 26 letters.
Inside a Key Switch A housing, a spring and a slider: the three parts of a metal contact switch, and what happens between press and release. All 26 letters.
Swapping Switches Hot-swap sockets take the place of solder, so a switch pulls out and another pushes in. All 26 letters.
Why Keys Bounce Contacts bounce before they settle, and the keyboard's processor averages the signal into one press. That is debouncing. All 26 letters.

Capitals and punctuation 4

Keycaps: Plastic and Print Capitals in threes (ABS, PBT, POM), quotation marks, semicolons, a colon and brackets. Pad printing is the cheapest way to mark a keycap; doubleshot caps mould the letter in a second colour.
Rubber Domes, Fairly Described Apostrophes, semicolons, a colon, brackets, an exclamation mark and two question marks. A dome must be pressed all the way down to close the circuit, then it springs the key back.
What Counts as Mechanical? Quotation marks, a semicolon, brackets, a colon and question marks. The term has no agreed definition, which is the point of the passage.
Why the Space Bar Doesn't Wobble Brackets, a colon, a semicolon, an apostrophe and two question marks. Keys two or more units long ride on stabilisers.

Show all 12 passages (4 more)

Number row and symbols 4

An Order for Parts Dollar signs, decimals, an at sign, a percent sign, square brackets and a minus sign. The order is made up and its sums are right.
Counting Keys: 104, 105 and Fewer Key counts, an ampersand, a hash, a tilde, a slash, a plus and an equals sign. A UK layout has one key more than a US one, beside a two-row Enter.
The Number Row, Left to Right All ten digits in order, the ten symbols above them on a US layout, then five sums that use them.
Rollover by the Numbers Digits, a plus sign, a percent sign, brackets and quotation marks. Two-key rollover promises any two keys at once; n-key rollover reads every key held.

How this list was compiled: All 12 passages were written for this site on 2026-10-07; none is quoted from anywhere, and no maker, switch brand or product is named. The facts in them were checked against Wikipedia: the parts of a metal contact switch, hot-swap sockets, rubber domes and membranes, debouncing, keycap printing and stabilisers at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_technology; keycap plastics and two-shot moulding at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keycap; two-key and n-key rollover and the USB boot protocol's eight modifier keys and six key codes at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_rollover; the key counts 101, 104 and 105 and the tenkeyless form at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_keyboard; the UK layout's extra key and two-row Enter at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_and_American_keyboards. A fact these articles do not give was not written. The order in An Order for Parts is made up, and its sums and those of the number row passage were checked. Each of the four passages of the first group uses all 26 letters and holds nothing but letters, spaces, commas and full stops; the words and characters were counted. Characters divided by five give standard words (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_per_minute). All checked 2026-10-07. Licence: Passages, titles and notes are original to this site.