1. About

NerdType is a minimalistic typing game that combines typing practice with language learning. Win by typing words correctly before your energy runs out. Expand your vocabulary with words from English, Finnish, and Swedish while sharpening your typing speed and accuracy. Every correct word brings you closer to victory and helps you master fast, precise typing. Whether you're aiming to improve your skills or just enjoy a unique challenge, NerdType offers a fun and rewarding way to level up your typing.

2. The Philosophy Behind NerdType

Many aspects of life and work require muscle memory to achieve true efficiency and flow. Whether you're coding, studying, writing, or managing daily tasks, your typing skills form the foundation of your digital productivity. Fast and accurate typing isn't just about speed – it's about reducing the friction between your thoughts and their expression.

When you can type without thinking about individual keystrokes, your mind is free to focus on higher-level concerns: solving complex problems, crafting better code architecture, or expressing ideas more clearly. Poor typing skills create a bottleneck that slows down your entire workflow, interrupting your train of thought and breaking your concentration.

This is why I created NerdType – to provide an engaging way to develop the muscle memory and precision that makes everything else easier. In programming, every function call, variable name, and code comment benefits from fluid typing. In academic work, note-taking and essay writing become less burdensome when your fingers can keep pace with your thoughts. In professional environments, emails, documentation, and presentations flow more naturally when typing isn't a conscious effort.

The goal isn't just to type faster, but to type with such natural precision that it becomes an extension of your thinking process. NerdType combines practice with purpose, using real words from multiple languages and programming contexts to build skills that directly apply to your work and studies.

3. Keybinds

Press Enter to start or restart game, and Ctrl + Enter to reset the page. You can use number keys 1-5 to quickly navigate between pages. Toggle scoreboard, settings, and login buttons visibility with Ctrl + U. Toggle scoreboard with Ctrl + I, and settings panel with Ctrl + O. Toggle minimal UI mode with Ctrl + Z.

4. User Account Types

NerdType supports both guest users and registered accounts, each with distinct data storage and privacy characteristics:

4.1 Guest Users
  • Local Storage Only: All game data, including scores, achievements, and settings, is stored locally in your browser's storage
  • No Data Transmission: Your game data and achievements remain private and are never sent to external servers
  • Data Control: You can clear your browser's local storage at any time to completely remove all game data and achievements
  • Device-Specific: Your progress is tied to the specific browser and device you're using
4.2 Registered Users
  • Cloud Storage: Game data and achievements are automatically synchronized to secure servers for cross-device access
  • Global Leaderboard Participation: The "Share scores to global leaderboards" toggle in game settings determines whether you participate in competitive rankings
  • Data Persistence: Your progress is preserved across different devices and browsers when logged in
  • Account Management: Contact us via email to delete your account and associated data if desired

Both user types enjoy the full NerdType experience with identical gameplay features. The choice between guest and registered use depends on your privacy preferences and whether you want cross-device synchronization.

5. How words per minute (WPM) is calculated

In NerdType, your typing speed is measured in Words Per Minute (WPM). Here's how the WPM is calculated:

  1. The game tracks the time elapsed from your first keystroke until the game ends. This time is converted from milliseconds to minutes.
  2. The game counts the total number of characters you typed correctly in all words, including longer words which contribute more characters to your total.
  3. The standard word length is defined as 5 characters, which is the international standard for typing speed measurements.
  4. Your WPM is calculated by dividing your total characters typed by 5 (to convert to standard words), then dividing by the elapsed time in minutes.

For example, if you typed 200 characters correctly in 1 minute, your WPM would be:

(200 characters / 5 characters per word) / 1 minute = 40 WPM

This means typing longer words will contribute more to your WPM than shorter words. For example:

  • Typing "programming" (11 characters) counts as 2.2 standard words
  • Typing "cat" (3 characters) counts as 0.6 standard words

The WPM calculation only considers correctly typed words and does not account for any errors or incorrect words.

6. How Accuracy is calculated

In NerdType, your typing accuracy is measured as a percentage of correct keystrokes. Here's how the accuracy is calculated:

  1. The game tracks every character you type (excluding backspace and special keys) from your first keystroke until the game ends.
  2. When you type a character, it's counted as correct only if it matches the corresponding character in the target word at that exact position.
  3. The game maintains two counts:
    • Total keystrokes: Every character you type
    • Correct keystrokes: Characters that match the target word
  4. Your accuracy is calculated by dividing correct keystrokes by total keystrokes and converting to a percentage.

For example, if you typed 20 characters and 16 of them were correct, your accuracy would be:

(16 correct keystrokes / 20 total keystrokes) × 100 = 80% accuracy

Here's how accuracy works in practice:

  • If the target word is "code" and you type "cade", you will have 4 total keystrokes, 3 correct keystrokes (c, d, e), resulting in 75% accuracy.
  • If you type "coxde" and then backspace to fix it to "code", you will have 5 total keystrokes (c, o, x, d, e), 4 correct keystrokes (c, o, d, e), resulting in 80% accuracy.

The accuracy calculation includes all characters typed, even if you later correct them with backspace. This encourages precise typing rather than rapid typing-and-correcting.

7. How Score is Calculated

In NerdType, your score is calculated using a sophisticated formula that considers your typing performance and the game's energy settings. Here's a detailed breakdown:

  1. Base Score: The core of your score is calculated with: (WPM × 10) × (accuracy² as decimal) × difficulty multiplier
    • WPM (Words Per Minute) measures your typing speed
    • Accuracy is squared to heavily reward precision typing
    • The difficulty multiplier adjusts based on game mode and settings
  2. Precision Bonus: Additional points for consecutive perfect words
    • Tracks words typed without any mistakes (precision streak)
    • Bonus starts after 5 consecutive perfect words
    • 2% of base score per perfect word after the 5th
    • Streak resets to 0 when any typing mistake is made
    • Applied to base score only, not energy bonus
    • No cap - longer streaks always reward more points
  3. Difficulty Multiplier: A dynamic calculation based on game energy settings
    • Total Words: More words needed increases the multiplier
    • Bonus Energy: Less bonus energy increases the multiplier
    • Initial Energy: Less initial energy increases the multiplier
    • Classic Mode (30 words needed) serves as the baseline
    • Multiplier ranges from 0.5 to 2.0, dynamically responding to game settings
    • Custom settings generate an appropriate multiplier
  4. Energy Bonus: A small bonus is awarded for remaining energy
    • Bonus = min(remainingEnergy × 5, baseScore × 0.2)
    • This is capped at 20% of your base score to keep it balanced
  5. Final Score: Base Score + Precision Bonus + Energy Bonus

This scoring system ensures that your results are comparable across different game modes and difficulty settings. Players are primarily rewarded for typing skill (speed and accuracy), with appropriate adjustments for the challenge level chosen.

8. Quick Commands

Quick Commands allow you to customize your NerdType experience on-the-fly without opening the settings menu. Simply type a command starting with a forward slash / in the game input field and press Enter. The game will pause while processing the command, and most commands will reload the game to apply changes.

8.1 Available Commands

Game Mode Management:

/zen - Toggle Zen Mode on/off
/mode <mode> - Switch game mode (classic, hard, practice, speedrunner)
/prac <words> - Practice specific words (e.g. cat dog bird)
/offscreen - Open popup window with word list for multi-monitor practice
/reset - Reset all settings to defaults

Difficulty Settings (Classic Mode):

/setwords <number> - Set number of words needed to win (10-200)
/setbonus <number> - Set bonus energy per correct word (1-10)
/setinitial <number> - Set starting energy amount (4-20)

Language and Input:

/lang <word set> - Switch word set
/space - Toggle space-after-words feature on/off
/punc - Toggle punctuation marks on/off

Information Commands:

/status - Display current game settings
/help - Show all available commands
/data - Toggle sharing scores to global leaderboards
/discord - Toggle Discord webhook
/rm scoreboard.data - Remove local scoreboard data from local storage
/rm achievements.data - Remove achievemets data from local storage

9. Achievements

NerdType features an achievement system. Explore the Achievements to discover the tiers and challenges that await you.

10. Discord Webhooks

When logged in, NerdType can automatically share your scores and achievements to the NerdType Discord server. Use /discord to turn this feature on or off. (Available only for registered users.)

11. Known Issues

Issues are categorized by severity: High (major impact), Medium (moderate impact), Low (minor impact).

  1. 🟡 Medium - Chart Responsiveness: Charts on the chart page do not scale properly across different device sizes, potentially causing display issues on mobile devices and varying screen resolutions.

12. Terms of Use

Terms of Use for NerdType

13. Contact

To submit feedback, report bugs, or make suggestions, reach out via email:
nerdtype-contact@protonmail.com or visit our contact page for more information.

If you want to delete your account data, please contact us by email or through the contact page.

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