Pulse vs Monkeytype

Monkeytype is a free, minimalist browser typing test — clean word lists, instant WPM, beloved by the keyboard community. Pulse is a macOS app that measures how you actually type — automatically, across every app, all day.

Use Monkeytype to…

A quick, fun benchmark whenever you want to test yourself.

Use Pulse to…

See your real, everyday speed and accuracy with a keyboard heatmap, per-app breakdown, leaderboard and streaks — privately, on-device. Monkeytype can't measure how you type in real work — it only knows the 30 seconds you spend on the test.

The honest take

Reach for Monkeytype when you want a quick, fun benchmark whenever you want to test yourself. Reach for Pulse when you want to know — and improve — your genuine typing over time. Prefer a quick test in our own style? Try the Pulse typing test.

Why a test score and a real score disagree

Sit down for a 60-second test and you type carefully: familiar words, no code, no punctuation you have to hunt for, full attention. That is your ceiling — the best you can do when typing is the only task. Real work is different. You pause to think, switch between an editor and a chat window, fight your own variable names, and correct yourself mid-sentence. Test WPM and lived WPM routinely differ by 20 or 30 words a minute, and neither number is wrong. They are answers to different questions.

Monkeytype answers "how fast can I go?" Pulse answers "how fast do I actually go, and where does the speed leak?" The second one is harder to fake. Pulse builds your real statistics from every keystroke across every app, then shows the gap a test can't see — the apps where you slow down, the keys you fumble across thousands of presses, the hour of day your accuracy dips. A score you set in 60 seconds tells you what's possible. A score measured over weeks tells you what to fix.

So use both, honestly. Take the test when you want a clean number to chase or a layout to compare. Keep Pulse running for the truth underneath it — the typing you do when no one is timing you, which is nearly all of it.