About SmartType

What is SmartType

SmartType is a free typing practice tool for people who want to put in real practice time without it looking like practice. It has two modes — Sprint and Hacker — that share the same underlying typing engine but serve different moments: focused, measured drills when you want them, and a no-pressure coffee break when you don't.

It runs entirely in the browser on desktop and mobile, needs no account, and has no paid tier. Nothing is gated.

The two modes

Each mode page has a fuller explanation of how it works below the practice screen.

• Sprint Mode— a single line of text streams past a cursor fixed in the center of the screen, so your eyes never move. This is the mode that measures and records your progress. Keyboard only.
• Hacker Mode— a coffee break with no time limit. Any key advances a stream of code across a terminal interface, and none of that is ever scored. On desktop, the console's top line quietly runs the same word-by-word judging as Sprint Mode, driven by the same keystrokes — type along with it for real practice, or ignore it and just enjoy the terminal. Either way, nothing here is ever saved. On mobile it's tap-only free typing with no judged line.

How the numbers work

Sprint Mode is the one mode that measures and records a result.

• WPM — correctly typed characters divided by five (the international one-word-equals-five-characters convention), divided by the elapsed minutes of the session.
• Raw WPM — the same formula applied to every keystroke, mistakes included. The gap between raw and WPM is what your errors cost you.
• Accuracy — correct keystrokes divided by total keystrokes, across the whole session.
• Consistency — derived from how much your per-second WPM varied. An even pace scores near 100%; bursts followed by pauses score lower even at the same average speed.

Timing starts on your first keystroke rather than when the screen appears, so pausing to settle your hands costs you nothing. After each session you also get a per-second WPM trend chart, a ranking of your slowest and most-missed keys, and a keyboard heatmap showing how reliably you hit each key you were asked to type.

Why it exists

Most typing games look like a kids' toy — flashy, gimmicky, not something you'd want open at your desk. SmartType is built to look and feel like the professional tools you already use every day, so practicing your typing speed doesn't feel out of place.

The other reason is that wanting to practice a lot is easy, but wanting to be seen practicing in an office or on a train is not. Hacker Mode exists so that, from across the room, you just look like someone typing fast — whether or not you are actually working through Sprint Mode's quiet drill line underneath.

Pricing, ads and data

Both modes are free and no account is required. The project is funded by ads on the landing page, the profile page and the result screen shown after a Sprint Mode session — the practice screens themselves carry no ads while you are typing.

If you do not sign in, your Sprint Mode results are calculated in your browser and are not stored on our servers at all. If you choose to sign in with Google, each session is saved to your account so your profile can show history and progress over time, including the per-second and per-key detail used to draw the charts on your result screen. Hacker Mode is never recorded either way.

The Privacy Policy covers exactly what is stored, where, and how to have it deleted.

Sharing and streaming

Post it, stream it, put it on YouTube — screenshots, clips and live play are all fine, monetized channels included, and you don't need to ask first.

If you do share it, a link to smart-type.com helps people find it. That's a request, not a requirement — the exact wording is in Section 9 of the Terms.