Quick answers before you test
What is APM?
Actions per minute: every key press and mouse click, counted and scaled to a minute. Strategy games such as StarCraft II and MOBAs show it as a measure of how fast a player works.
What is effective APM?
APM without the spam. Holding a rhythm on one key or clicking the same spot raises raw APM without doing anything; effective counts drop those repeats. The drill goes further and counts only actions that hit a prompt.
Why is my drill score lower than my APM?
The drill counts prompts answered, not keys pressed. A key that matches nothing, or a click beside a ring, is an action but not an answer.
Does it work on AZERTY or QWERTZ?
Yes. A prompt is answered by the key that types that character, or by the key in that position on a US layout, whichever you press.
What the result actually measures
The drill spawns key tiles (Q, W, E, R, A, S, D, F and 1 to 4) and click rings at random places for thirty seconds. Each lives 1.7 seconds. The time between new prompts starts at 0.7 s and shortens with every hit among the last ten prompts and lengthens with every miss, so it settles at the pace you can sustain. It reports prompts answered per minute, all actions per minute, accuracy (answers ÷ actions) and median reaction time for keys and clicks. The free count records every key-down (key repeat excluded) and every mouse button on the pad for 10, 30 or 60 seconds from your first action; effective APM drops an action that repeats the same key or button within 150 ms of its last use, and the best five-second stretch is scaled to a minute.
Measurement boundary: The spam rule is this page’s own and is stated with the result; replay analysers and in-game counters use their own filters, so compare numbers between runs here rather than with a replay. The drill measures answering prompts, not decision-making in a game. Browsers deliver key and click events with a few milliseconds of jitter, which does not move a per-minute count.
How to interpret the output
Answered per minute
Prompts hit per minute at the pace the drill settled on. Spam cannot raise it; it rises with speed and accuracy together.
Effective APM
Your free-count actions without fast repeats. If it is far below raw APM, a lot of the speed was one key or button repeated.
Key against click reaction
Most players answer key prompts faster than click targets, which need the mouse to travel. A large gap is a sign to practise mouse accuracy rather than hotkeys.
Troubleshooting unexpected results
Keys do nothing in the drill
Click the arena once so the page has focus, and check that no other window is taking the keys. Arrow keys, Tab and function keys are not used.
The free count will not start
Scroll until the pad is on screen and press a key, or click the pad. The clock starts with your first action.
Firefox opens quick find
Typing an apostrophe or slash opens it outside the test; inside a run the page keeps those keys. Click the page and start again.
Frequently asked questions
How do I test my APM?
Run the 30-second drill for a figure spam cannot inflate, or the free count to see raw APM while you play your own routine. Both work with any keyboard and mouse.
What is a good APM?
It depends on the game and how actions are counted. In StarCraft II, APM rises steadily with league; casual play sits well under 100 and professionals play at several hundred. Compare your drill score with your own earlier runs.
What is the difference between APM and EPM?
APM counts every action; EPM, effective actions per minute, counts only the ones that did something. This page’s drill reports prompts answered per minute, an EPM that spam cannot raise.
Do mouse clicks count as actions?
Yes. Every mouse button press counts as one action, as in strategy games; moving the mouse does not.
Is APM the same as CPS?
No. CPS counts mouse clicks per second on one button; APM counts every key and click per minute. The CPS test measures the first.
Is this the APM psychology test?
No. The Advanced Progressive Matrices are a reasoning test; this page measures actions per minute in games.
