Is Voice Typing Faster Than Typing? What the Research Says
A Stanford study found speech input nearly 3x faster than typing on a phone. Here's what the numbers really show, where voice loses, and how to get the speed-up in daily work.
Short answer: yes, usually by around 3x for getting words down. How much time you actually save depends on what you're writing and how much editing the output needs afterwards. Here's what the research shows, and how to get most of that speed-up in everyday work.
The study everyone cites
In 2016, researchers from Stanford, the University of Washington and Baidu ran a controlled experiment. The final version was published in 2018 as Comparing Speech and Keyboard Text Entry for Short Messages in Two Languages on Touchscreen Phones. Thirty-two participants entered short phrases two ways: by typing on an iPhone keyboard, and by speaking to Baidu's Deep Speech 2 recognizer.
The results from the published paper:
- English: speech was 2.93x faster, at 153 words per minute versus 52 for typing.
- Mandarin: speech was 2.87x faster, at 123 versus 43 words per minute.
- Errors while entering text were lower with speech: a corrected error rate of 5.30%, versus 11.22% for typing.
- Errors left in the final text were slightly higher with speech: 1.30%, versus 0.79% for typing.
That last point is the honest caveat. Speech is much faster, but you still need to read the result before you send it. Stanford's own summary of the study rounded the English result to "three times faster".
What about typing on a real keyboard?
The study measured phone keyboards, and most people type faster on a laptop. So what's the right comparison?
- Typing: in a 2018 Aalto University study of 168,000 volunteers, the average was 52 words per minute, and most people were between 30 and 60. The volunteers chose to take an online typing test, so the real-world average is probably a bit lower.
- Speaking: the National Center for Voice and Speech puts the average American English speaking rate at about 150 words per minute.
So even against a physical keyboard, speaking is roughly 2.5–3x faster for most people. Only unusually fast typists get close.
Where voice typing wins
- First drafts. Emails, documents, notes and anything where getting the ideas down matters more than exact wording.
- Messages and replies. Slack, WhatsApp, email and support tickets: short, frequent, and conversational anyway.
- Prompts for AI tools. A spoken prompt tends to be longer and more specific, and that gets better answers. See our guide to voice typing in Cursor.
- Long stretches of writing. Voice also takes pressure off your hands and wrists, which matters if you have RSI or carpal tunnel.
Where typing still wins
- Precise edits. Changing one word in a sentence is quicker with a keyboard.
- Code syntax. Describe what the code should do and let a tool write it, but don't dictate brackets.
- Shared spaces. Open-plan offices and quiet rooms make talking awkward.
- Very technical vocabulary, unless your tool lets you add custom words.
The hidden cost: cleaning up
Traditional dictation types exactly what you say, including "um", "so, like" and the sentence you restarted halfway through. Fixing that by hand can cancel out much of the speed advantage.
Modern AI dictation tools narrow that gap. They remove filler words, add punctuation, and turn spoken rambling into written sentences before the text appears. Some go further. In Blip AI, for example, starting with "Hey Blip" switches to Action Mode, where you describe the reply you want and it drafts the email or message rather than transcribing your words.
A quick calculation
Say you write about 2,000 words a day across email, chat and documents:
- Typing at 52 wpm: about 38 minutes.
- Speaking at 150 wpm: about 13 minutes, plus a few minutes to review and fix.
That's roughly 20 minutes saved a day, or about 80 hours a year. Your numbers will vary, but the direction is clear.
How to get the speed-up
- Start with messages, not documents. Short replies are the easiest habit to build.
- Use one shortcut everywhere. A single push-to-talk key that works in every app beats remembering which tools have a microphone button.
- Think first, then speak. Take a second to decide what you want to say. Pauses are fine.
- Add your custom words (names, products, jargon) to your tool's dictionary on day one.
- Always read before you send. It takes five seconds and catches the occasional misheard word.
You can try this for free with the dictation built into macOS or Windows (press Win + H), or with an AI dictation app. Blip AI has a free plan and works in any app on Mac, Windows and Linux. Download it here, or read our comparison of dictation apps.
FAQ
How much faster is voice typing than typing? In a controlled Stanford/UW/Baidu study, speech was 2.93x faster than typing on a phone in English (153 vs 52 wpm). Against a laptop keyboard, most people will see roughly 2.5–3x.
Is voice typing more accurate than typing? While entering text, speech had fewer errors (5.3% vs 11.2%). The final text had slightly more uncorrected errors (1.3% vs 0.8%), so always proofread.
What's the average typing speed? In a study of 168,000 volunteers, the average was 52 words per minute, with most people between 30 and 60.
What's the average speaking speed? About 150 words per minute for American English speakers.