How TextExpander Calculates Your Time Savings

TextExpander calculates time saved from the characters each Snippet types for you and an assumed typing speed. See how the formula works, where to find your time savings, and how to save more time with Snippets.

Alarm clock, laptop, notebook and pen on a dark desk, representing time saved

TextExpander helps you save time by eliminating repetitive typing: but how much time, and how is that calculated?

If you’ve poked around in TextExpander, or received a TextExpander Monthly Report email from us, you might have noticed TextExpander calculates exactly how much time you’ve saved.

TextExpander monthly report overview: Kerry has used 1160 snippet expansions, and saved 7 hours 6 minutes in the last 30 days.

How Does TextExpander Calculate My Time Savings?

So, how do we calculate how much time TextExpander saves?

We take characters saved — that’s (snippet length – abbreviation length) — add those up, and divide it by words per minute, where we assume that an average word length is 5.

  • Let’s say you type the abbreviation Tx to expand TextExpander and that’s your only snippet. You save 10 characters each time you use it.
  • Let’s say you use it 8,000 times in a year. That’s 80,000 characters saved.
  • Your WPM is set to 80, so you type 400 characters in a minute. 80,000 characters / 400 characters / minute = 200 minutes saved or 3.33 hours saved.

Note: These stats only reflect calculated savings. They don’t take into account the savings that come from accuracy and consistency 🙂

Where Can I Find Out How Much Time I’ve Saved with TextExpander?

Head to TextExpander.com and sign in.
To find your personal statistics, select ‘Personal Statistics’ on the left hand side.

Showing how to insert a date range for an overview of statistics


Change your ‘Words per Minute’, depending on your typing speed. Here’s more info on average WPM typing speeds. Click ‘View Report’ to see your Snippets Expanded and Time Saved.

Showing personal statistics (time saved and snippets used)


For Team Statistics, select ‘Statistics’ under your organization name. Click ‘View Report’.

Showing team statistics (time saved and snippets used)

How Can I Save More Time with TextExpander?

Keen to supercharge those time-saving stats? Here’s how:

  • Join our Public Groups for ready-made snippet groups you can join and start using right away.

How much time have you saved with TextExpander? Let us know in the comments.

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How TextExpander Calculates Your Time Savings