Switches
These are the switches whose makers state that lubricant is applied before the switch leaves the factory. Hand lubing is the single most effective switch modification and also the most tedious, running to a few hours for a full board, so a switch that arrives smooth has saved you an evening.
Factory lube quality is inconsistent, and that is the part nobody advertises. Applied well, a switch needs nothing doing to it. Applied unevenly, some keys feel slow or gritty while their neighbours are fine, which is more irritating than a uniformly dry board because the inconsistency is what you notice.
One thing this list is not is a list of switches that are not lubed. Every entry here says so because its maker said so. Where a maker says nothing, the field on that entry is blank rather than set to no, because a vendor omitting a line about lubricant is not evidence that a switch ships dry.
20 of the 48 switches indexed here, from 32 gf to 60 gf. 9 have at least one force figure left blank, because the sources disagreed or published something impossible.
Keygeek
At 32 gf this is the lightest switch in the index, light enough that resting your hands on the board can press a key. Factory lubed, 2.0 mm to actuation, 3.8 mm total, with a spherical stem tip. Bottom-out force is blank because both shops print 32 gf for it as well, and a spring cannot weigh the same at the top of its travel as at the floor.
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Wingtree
A silent linear at 35 gf actuation and 45 gf bottom-out, factory lubed, 3.8 mm of travel. Silencing is done with silicone on the stem, so both the bottom-out and the return are damped, and the switch gives up some of the crispness a non-silent linear has in exchange. Light and quiet is a shared office combination rather than a sound-test one.
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Keygeek
A 37 gf linear bottoming out at 42 gf, factory lubed, with a nylon stem rather than the usual POM. The bottom housing carries 50 percent fibreglass, the highest fill in this batch. Total travel is left out: one shop says 3.8 mm and the other 3.4 mm, and a 0.4 mm disagreement is too large to average.
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Gateron
A 40 gf linear, factory lubed, 2.0 mm to actuation and 3.6 mm total. Light enough to sit at the bottom of the usable range for typing without being a speed switch. Both vendors carrying it describe the housing with a template placeholder rather than a material, so housing and bottom-out force are blank rather than guessed.
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Kailh
A 40 gf linear, factory lubed, bottoming out at 50 gf over 3.4 mm. The 10 gf spread between actuation and bottom-out is wider than the HMX linears in this batch, so the press firms up more noticeably as it goes down. No housing material is published by either vendor carrying it.
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Keygeek
A light 40 gf linear bottoming out at 45 gf, factory lubed, 2.0 mm and 3.5 mm. The bottom housing is nylon loaded with 30 percent fibreglass, which Keygeek uses to stiffen the shell and raise the pitch of the bottom-out. A polycarbonate top over a filled-nylon bottom is the pairing most of the Keygeek line uses.
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HMX
HMX has spent the last few years making the switches that enthusiasts actually recommend, and this is a representative one: 42 gf, a POK stem in a PA12 top and fibreglass-loaded nylon bottom, on a 22 mm long spring. The material choice is the point. POK on nylon is what gives HMX switches their characteristically dry, clacky sound rather than the deeper tone of an all-nylon build. Factory lubed thinly, which is the right amount.
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Kailh
A 42 gf linear bottoming out at 50 gf, factory lubed, with a full 3.8 mm of travel. The housing is liquid crystal polymer top and bottom, a stiffer and more dimensionally stable plastic than nylon or POM, which is unusual at this price and is the reason to look at this switch. Kailh describes the stem only as running new moulds, so that field is blank.
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Gateron
The lighter sibling of the G Pro 3.0 Yellow, and the better first switch for anyone who finds most keyboards tiring. It actuates at 45 gf and bottoms out around 50 gf, so the press is short on resistance from top to bottom: fast to type on, and easy to rest your fingers on without triggering a key. Same construction as the rest of the G Pro 3.0 line, a POM stem in a polycarbonate top and nylon bottom housing on a stainless steel spring, and factory lubed before it ships. Pick the Red over the Yellow if you type all day, or if a heavier switch has ever made your hands ache.
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Cherry
Cherry's silent tactile, and a departure from the company's reputation for restraint: 45 gf with a 1.9 mm pre-travel and a bump you can actually feel. Cherry's silencing is built into the stem and housing rather than added as pads, which is why it does not feel as damped as most silent switches. Factory lubed. If Cherry MX Brown always felt vague to you, this is the same idea done properly and quietly.
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Gateron
The linear member of the KS-33 low-profile family, 45 gf with 1.7 mm of pre-travel and 3.0 mm total. Low profile means a different mount and different keycaps: KS-33 switches do not accept MX caps. POK on top is Gateron's harder, higher-pitched top housing material, and the switch is factory lubed.
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Gateron
Gateron's silent linear at a light 45 gf, and one of the easier ways to make a loud board quiet without rebuilding it. Silencing a switch means putting rubber where plastic would otherwise hit plastic, and that always costs a little crispness: the bottom-out feels slightly cushioned rather than firm. The KS-9 3.0 handles that trade better than most, helped by a dual-stage spring that keeps the press from going mushy near the end. A sensible pick for an office, or for anyone typing next to someone else.
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KTT
A middleweight linear at 45 gf with a 50 gf bottom-out and 1.9 mm of pre-travel, which is a very ordinary specification and meant as a compliment. Nothing here is unusual, which makes it a sensible default when you want a board to feel normal rather than distinctive. The nylon bottom housing keeps the sound on the deeper side.
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Keygeek
The heaviest Keygeek linear indexed here: 48 gf to actuate, 53 gf at the bottom, factory lubed, 3.6 mm of travel. The stem is a UPE blend rather than POM, and hollowed at the tip, both choices aimed at the sound rather than the weight. PA12 housing top and bottom.
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KTT
A short-travel linear built for speed: 1.3 mm of pre-travel, so the key registers barely into the press, and 3.5 mm total. That combination is aimed at gaming, where the distance to actuation matters more than how the switch sounds. At 48 gf it is not light, which stops the short travel turning into constant mistypes. A specialist choice, and honest about it.
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Gateron
Gateron's third revision of the G Pro Yellow, and the switch most often recommended as a first upgrade from whatever came in the box. It is a plain linear: no bump, no click, 50 gf to actuate and 67 gf to bottom out, which is light enough to type on all day and heavy enough not to trigger by accident. The interest is in what Gateron does before it ships. The stem is POM in a polycarbonate top and nylon bottom housing, the spring is 15.4 mm stainless steel, and it arrives factory lubed, so it feels smooth out of the packet rather than after an evening with a brush. That combination is why it turns up in so many builds: it is the closest thing the hobby has to a default.
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Gateron
A low-profile tactile on Gateron's KS-33 platform, so it is not an MX switch and will not fit MX keycaps or a standard hot-swap socket. Everything is shorter than MX: 1.7 mm to actuation and 3.0 mm to the bottom, against roughly 2.0 and 4.0 on a full-height switch. At 50 gf it is the middle weight of the three KS-33 flavours indexed here, and it ships factory lubed.
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Gateron
The tactile version of the same silent housing, at 55 gf with a short 1.5 mm pre-travel, so the bump arrives early and the key registers soon after it. Tactile and silent is a harder combination than either alone, because the dampening that kills the noise also blunts the bump. This keeps enough of it to feel deliberate. Heavier than the Pink, and the right choice if you want feedback from a switch nobody else can hear.
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Gateron
One of the switches that built Gateron's reputation with enthusiasts rather than manufacturers. A heavy linear at 55 gf that bottoms out around 80, so it takes deliberate pressure and returns firmly, and the ink-style housing gives it the deep sound the hobby spent years chasing. Not a beginner switch: if you have only used a stock keyboard it will feel like hard work. If you already know you type heavily, this is the reference everything else gets compared to.
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Gateron
A low-profile clicky, which is an unusual thing to want and a very specific thing to enjoy. Total travel is 3.0 mm rather than the usual 4.0, so everything happens sooner, and at 60 gf the press is firm. The POK top and POM bottom housing give the click a harder, drier sound than a standard-height clicky. Only relevant if your board takes Gateron low-profile switches, which is worth checking before you buy.
View →LinearTactileSilentLightHeavy All switches Sortable table
Brands represented here: Cherry, Gateron, HMX, KTT, Kailh, Keygeek, Wingtree.