The Home Edition is the full TOEFL iBT taken on your own computer with a live remote proctor. The test is the same; what changes is that your room, your desk and your equipment become part of the rules. This guide covers what ETS requires and how to prepare so that none of it surprises you on the day.
The Home Edition suits you if you have a private, quiet room you can control for the length of the test, a computer that meets the requirements below, and a stable setup you can practice on beforehand. It is a poorer fit if you share your space and cannot guarantee that nobody will walk in, if your only computer is a tablet or Chromebook, or if you take notes heavily on paper and would struggle with a small whiteboard.
Think about timing too. The test itself runs about 1 h 23 m to 1 h 29 m depending on which adaptive modules you receive, but ETS advises allowing approximately two hours in total, and check-in comes before the test timer starts. Book a slot in which you can guarantee the room for the whole window, not just the test. ETS describes Home Edition availability as 24 hours a day, four days a week, and asks you to register at least 24 hours before your appointment. For a comparison of delivery options and retake rules, see TOEFL test dates and retakes.
These are the requirements ETS lists for the Home Edition. Treat them as minimums and check the official requirements page again in the week of your test, because ETS updates them.
Most people practice listening on headphones, and many assume they can use them on test day. You cannot. ETS requires a speaker — built into the computer or external — so that the proctor can be heard as well as the test, and a microphone that is not part of a headset. If you have practiced Listening only through earbuds, switch to your laptop speaker for at least two full practice tests. The sound is different, and the Listening section plays each recording only once.
Your main camera can be built in or a separate webcam, but it must be able to show the proctor a full view of the room. With a built-in laptop camera, that means physically turning the laptop during the room scan, so make sure the power cable is long enough and the laptop can turn without unplugging anything. Your phone or tablet acts as a second camera: charge it fully, and check that its operating system meets the iOS 12 or Android 8 minimum.
ETS delivers the Home Edition through the TOEFL Test App, which launches automatically when you begin. Install and check it from your ETS account well before test day, then install any system updates the day before and restart, so nothing restarts mid-test.
The proctor has to be able to confirm that you are alone, unassisted and not recording the test. The room rules all follow from that.
You can take notes, but only on one small desktop whiteboard with an erasable marker, or on one sheet of paper inside a transparent sheet protector written on with an erasable marker. No pens or pencils. At the end of the test the proctor will ask you to erase the board or sleeve and hold it up to the camera, front and back.
This affects strategy more than people expect. Space is limited, so notes have to be short. That suits the 2026 test, where good Listening notes record structure — the topic, the examples, the speaker’s view — rather than full sentences; the academic talk guide shows how. If you normally write a lot, practice on the same small surface until it feels normal. Erase between tasks so that you always have room.
For the Home Edition you must present valid, government-issued ID; ETS gives a passport, government ID or driver’s license as examples. The general ID rules apply as well: the document must be original and physical (no photocopies and no digital IDs), it must not be expired, and the name and date of birth must exactly match those you used when you registered. It must include your photo and signature. Check the match against your ETS account now, not on test day — a mismatch is one of the few problems the proctor cannot solve for you.
ETS describes the test-day sequence in this order. You may need to start before your appointment time because verification has to be completed before you check in.
Because the test timer starts only after the equipment check and when you begin, a slow check-in does not eat into your section time. It can still eat into your concentration, which is the real reason to have everything ready. Once the test starts there are no breaks: ETS states that breaks are not permitted unless approved as an accommodation. Use the bathroom and have a last drink of water before check-in, since food and drink are not allowed in the room.
ETS’s guidance is that if the equipment check fails on test day and you cannot solve the problem, you should continue to check in, and the proctor will help you. Before that point, the quickest fixes are the obvious ones: is the computer plugged in, is the right microphone selected in your system settings, and does the app have permission to use the camera and microphone? Fix one thing, then run the check again.
ETS requires you to be alone, and no one may enter during the test. Tell everyone in your home when your slot is, put a note on the door, and choose a time when the house is quietest. If you cannot guarantee this, a test center is the safer option.
A laptop, speaker or room you have never practiced with is a new variable on the one day you do not want one. Take at least one full practice test on the exact setup you will use, under the same rules: speaker not headphones, whiteboard not paper, desk cleared. Our TOEFL test-day checklist turns all of this into a timeline from the weeks before to the hour before.
The content and scoring are the same either way. If you cannot control a room for two hours or your equipment falls short, choose a test center, where scratch paper and pencils are provided and you arrive at least 30 minutes early. Either way, the preparation that matters most is the twelve task types in the 2026 TOEFL format.
Practice on the setup you will test with
Free lessons and timed practice for every 2026 TOEFL task type.
Official pages checked for this guide. Last reviewed October 2026.