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Full-size, TKL or compact: which keyboard size should you get?

Percentages are marketing and vendors use them inconsistently. Here is the split that actually decides it: number pad, function row, or neither.

Updated 31 Aug 2026 · no hands-on testing

The short answer

Ask one question first: do you type numbers into a keypad? If yes, buy full-size and stop reading. If no, buy tenkeyless: it keeps every function key, and it gives back the width the number pad was using.

Choose a compact board if you can work without a dedicated function row. Keychron B11 Pro is a scissor-key option with a folding Alice layout. It is designed for portability, so check its unfolded width before assuming it will free up mouse space.

The picks

  • Full-size without overspending

    SteelSeries Apex 3

    $49.99 seen 16 Aug 2026; check the current price

    A 104-key board with the number pad, a wrist rest, an IP32 water-resistance rating and ten-zone lighting. Membrane rather than mechanical, which is the trade at this price. It was seen at $49.99 on 16 Aug 2026; check the current price.

    Check price on AmazonPaid link — QuickDesker may earn a commission.

  • Tenkeyless for an office

    Cherry Stream Keyboard TKL

    $36.51 seen 16 Aug 2026; check the current price

    4.2★ (198) at Best Buy

    87 keys plus six media keys on Cherry's own SX scissor switches, marketed on quietness. It was seen at $36.51 on 16 Aug 2026; check the current price. It rates 4.2★ (198) at Best Buy, on an unusually large review sample.

    Check price on AmazonPaid link — QuickDesker may earn a commission.

  • Compact, and the cheapest way there

    Keychron V4

    $59.99 seen 16 Aug 2026; check the current price

    A 60% board (no function row, no navigation cluster, no number pad) that is hot-swappable, runs QMK/VIA and ships with PBT keycaps. Wired only. It was seen at $59.99 on 16 Aug 2026; check the current price.

    Check price on AmazonPaid link — QuickDesker may earn a commission.

  • Full-size when comfort is the point

    Logitech Wave Keys

    $69.99 seen 16 Aug 2026; check the current price

    99 keys including the number pad, on a wave-contoured keybed with a cushioned rest, switching between three devices. If you want the number pad as well as a keybed built for long days at the desk, this is the version of full-size worth paying for.

    Check price on AmazonPaid link — QuickDesker may earn a commission.

Why are keyboard percentages unreliable?

Because nothing administers what a percentage has to contain, so two boards carrying the same label can hold different keys. The demonstration, using two boards that both publish 60% and disagree by three keys, is in Keyboard layouts explained: key blocks, ANSI vs ISO, and what a percentage hides.

So our size filter is defined by what is physically on the board. Full-size means it has a number pad: that covers 100%, 96%, 1800-compact and 98-key layouts. Tenkeyless means no number pad but a dedicated function row, which covers TKL, 80%, 75% and most slim office boards. Compact means no dedicated function row at all: 65%, 60% and smaller.

Compare the actual keys, not just the percentage. Logitech MX Mechanical Mini has a dedicated function row, so this comparison groups it with tenkeyless layouts even where a retailer uses a different percentage label.

Which keyboard size should most people buy?

Tenkeyless, unless you have a specific reason not to. You keep every function key and lose only the number pad, which is the part most people never touch.

It is also the size that changes the least about how you work. Every function key is still a single press, the arrow keys are still where they were, and the only thing missing is the block most people were not using.

The range runs from Keychron C3 Pro at the cheap end to boards several times that, in both mechanical and membrane, wired and wireless.

Do you actually need a number pad?

Only if you enter figures often enough to notice, and it is a yes-or-no question rather than a spectrum. If your work involves accounting, data entry, or anything with a spreadsheet open all day, a number pad is faster than the number row, and the only thing that really replaces it is a separate one plugged in beside the keyboard.

If it does not, the pad is width you are giving up permanently. It sits between the letters and the mouse, which pushes your mouse hand further out for every hour you own the keyboard.

The compromise exists too: a 96% or 1800-compact layout keeps the pad but removes the gaps around it. Keychron V5 is the example here, at 96 keys.

Can you buy a compact keyboard that is not mechanical?

Yes. A compact keyboard can use scissor keys instead of mechanical switches. Keychron B11 Pro has a 65% Alice layout without a dedicated function row.

The folding design makes the Keychron B11 Pro worth considering for travel. For a fixed desk, compare its unfolded width with the boards you are considering; “compact” describes the key layout, not a promise of the smallest footprint.

Choose the keys you need first, then the mechanism you prefer. For the trade-offs, read Mechanical vs. membrane keyboards: which should you actually buy?

What do you give up on a compact board?

The dedicated function row, and by our definition nothing else. F1 through F12 still exist, but as a second function on the number row, reached through a modifier key.

Whether that is a nuisance depends entirely on what you press. If you live in a program with F-key shortcuts, you will feel it every day. If you use them rarely, you will stop noticing within a week.

Check remapping support on the exact model. Keychron’s compact mechanical examples include QMK/VIA boards, while Keychron B11 Pro uses ZMK firmware with the Keychron Launcher. A similar layout does not guarantee the same software. For the layout trade-offs, read Keyboard layouts explained: key blocks, ANSI vs ISO, and what a percentage hides.

Which keys do these keyboard layouts keep?

ProductSizeVendor's own name for itKeysNumber padPrice when seenWhere to buy
SteelSeries Apex 3Full-sizeFull size (104 keys)104Yes$49.99 (seen 16 Aug 2026)Check price on AmazonPaid link
Logitech Wave KeysFull-sizeFull size (99 key, US layout)99Yes$69.99 (seen 16 Aug 2026)Check price on AmazonPaid link
Keychron V5Full-size96% / 1800 compact (96 key)96Yes$74.99 (seen 16 Aug 2026)Check price on AmazonPaid link
Cherry Stream Keyboard TKLTKL / 75%TKL / 80% (87 keys + 6 media keys)87No$36.51 (seen 16 Aug 2026)Check price on AmazonPaid link
Keychron K8 ProTKL / 75%TKL / 80% (87 key)87No$74.99 (seen 16 Aug 2026)Check price on AmazonPaid link
Logitech MX Keys MiniTKL / 75%Compact 79 key, no number pad79No$89.99 (seen 16 Aug 2026)Check price on AmazonPaid link
Keychron V4Compact (65% / 60%)60% miniNot recordedNo$59.99 (seen 16 Aug 2026)Check price on AmazonPaid link
Keychron Q4Compact (65% / 60%)60% compactNot recordedNo$79.99 (seen 16 Aug 2026)Check price on AmazonPaid link

The vendor's own layout name is in the table next to our size tag so you can see where the two disagree. Where a key count is missing, the manufacturer did not publish one: we have not counted the keys in a product photograph.

Prices are what we saw on the dates shown, not live figures. A lot of them were promotional when we read them, so check the current price before you buy.

Paid link — QuickDesker may earn a commission.

“Not recorded” means this comparison has no sourced value for that specification. It does not mean the product lacks the feature.

Common questions

What does 75% mean, and is it TKL?

On this site, yes, and that is worth saying because much of the market calls a 75% board compact instead. A 75% board removes the number pad and compresses the navigation keys but keeps a dedicated function row, and the function row is what the split here turns on: compact means the row is gone.

Keychron K2 Pro and Keychron V1 are both 75% boards and both filed as tenkeyless here.

Is a 96% or 1800-compact keyboard full-size?

By our definition yes, because it has a number pad. The layout squeezes the pad and the navigation keys together to save width, which is the point of it.

Keychron V5 is the 96-key example here.

Do I lose the arrow keys on a compact board?

Not necessarily. Our compact tag is only about the function row; 65% layouts usually keep dedicated arrows and 60% layouts usually do not. The vendor's own layout name in the table above is the thing to read.

On a board running QMK/VIA you can also move them, which is most of why that firmware matters at this size.

Can I get a compact membrane keyboard?

Not from any brand shown here, and the combination is switched off on the board rather than shown as an empty result. Why that is the market's shape rather than a research gap is covered in Mechanical vs. membrane keyboards: which should you actually buy?

Which size is best for gaming?

We are not going to invent an answer to that. Not a single game has been played on any of these boards by anybody here, and the defensible position is that the size argument for gaming is about mouse room: a narrower keyboard leaves more desk for wide, low-sensitivity mouse movement.

If that is your reasoning, tenkeyless or compact follows from it. If it is not, size is not the variable you should be optimising.

What this is based on

We have not tested these products. The comparisons use manufacturer specifications and retailer information, with sources linked below. Prices are dated snapshots and may have changed.

Sizes here come from each manufacturer's own published layout description or key count, and where neither existed the tag rests on a retailer's statement, all of it cited below with the date read. Six Logitech size tags were originally inferred from marketing adjectives and were later closed against published statements; all six confirmed the tag already in place.

These boards have been read about here and never typed on, so there is nothing on this page about how a layout feels after a week. What is here is what is physically on each board and what each vendor calls it.

The sizes above come from what each manufacturer publishes for the boards on this page, not from a survey of the market. The selection excludes unbranded marketplace listings, and that is where a compact membrane board would come from if you went looking for one.

Sources (20)

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