Free typing lessons

How the lessons work

• A few keys at a time. Each lesson adds a few keys to the ones before it, and its text uses only keys you have learned: real words from a bank of 5,547, and in the number lessons, numbers made of the digits learned so far. Lesson 1 adds short drills, since the home row alone makes few words.
• Short rounds. A lesson round is at most 30 words.
• Passing is about accuracy, not speed. A lesson passes when you type a round at 95% accuracy or better with every new key typed right at least once. The next round then moves on to the next lesson.
• A keyboard guide under the text. On a computer keyboard, it can show the next key and the finger that types it, with hands resting on the home row, so your eyes can stay on the screen. Options sets how much it shows.
• Start anywhere. Pick any lesson below or in the practice options, go back to one you have passed, or skip ahead. Passing a lesson counts the lessons before it as passed too.
• Stars for beginners. On the Learning to type path, the text is larger and each round shows stars instead of a speed.
• Your progress is kept. Lessons passed are saved in your browser, and in your account if you sign in with Google.

Why this order

The lessons start on the home row, where the bumps on F and J let your hands find their place without looking. From there, movement grows one step at a time: no reach at all, then a reach to the side for G and H, then reaches up and down.

Keys come in pairs where they can, typed by the same finger making the same move on each hand: E and I, R and U, T and Y, O and W. So each lesson trains one motion.

Common letters come before rare ones, so real words arrive quickly: the word bank has 13 words for lesson 1, 163 after lesson 3, 1,238 after lesson 6, and 3,500 of its 5,547 after lesson 7. Punctuation comes after the letters, and capitals after that, because Shift is a second skill on top of finding the keys.

The number row comes last, two digits at a time, one finger on each hand: 4 and 7 for the index fingers, then the middle fingers, the ring fingers and the pinkies, and the index fingers’ stretch to 5 and 6 at the end. Each digit sits two rows above its finger’s home key.

Which finger types which key

Every lesson follows this chart, the standard touch typing one, and so does the keyboard guide on the practice page. Our guide to touch typing finger placement explains it key by key.