Both prove English proficiency for university admission, and most institutions accept either. The choice is about which format suits you — and the TOEFL’s 2026 overhaul changed that calculation considerably.
Test Ninjas Research · Updated September 11, 2026
The scales look alike but are not interchangeable. Both report bands in half steps and both average four sections. But TOEFL runs 1–6 and IELTS runs 0–9, so a TOEFL 5.0 is not an IELTS 5.0. Use each institution’s published requirement for the test you are actually taking.
Side by side
TOEFL iBT and IELTS Academic compared
TOEFL iBT
IELTS Academic
Administered by
ETS
British Council / IDP / Cambridge
Score scale
1–6 bands, 0.5 steps
0–9 bands, 0.5 steps
Overall score
Average of four sections, rounded to 0.5
Average of four sections, rounded to 0.5
Total test time
About 1 h 23 m – 1 h 29 m
About 2 h 45 m
Items
120
Varies by section
Adaptive
Yes — Reading and Listening
No
Speaking
Interview format, ~8 min, AI scored
11–14 min, face-to-face with an examiner
Speaking scheduling
Within the same sitting
Same day, or up to 7 days before or after
Writing
Sentence reconstruction + 2 academic responses
Two tasks, including an essay
Delivery
Test centre or Home Edition
Test centre, computer or paper
Test types
One academic test
Academic and General Training
Retake gap
3 days, no cap on attempts
Varies by centre
Single-section retake
Not available — the whole test is retaken
One Skill Retake in 110+ countries, but not the US
Score validity
2 years
2 years
Where the real differences lie
Speaking is the decisive one
This is the difference that most often settles the choice. IELTS speaking is a face-to-face interview with a human examiner lasting 11 to 14 minutes, and it can be scheduled up to a week either side of the rest of the test. The TOEFL is now an interview-format section of 11 short items answered into a computer and scored by AI, in roughly eight minutes.
Neither is easier in the abstract. Some people find a human interlocutor calming and responsive; others find speaking to a person under assessment far harder than speaking to a machine. This is worth testing on yourself rather than reasoning about.
Length, and what shortness costs
The TOEFL is now under 90 minutes against roughly 2 hours 45 for IELTS — a substantial gap, and a real advantage if sustained concentration is a weakness. The trade-off is that a shorter adaptive test gives you fewer items to recover from a bad start, and the routing stage in Reading and Listening means early performance shapes the rest of the section.
Task types you have or have not seen
If you have prepared for either test before, note that TOEFL preparation done before January 2026 is largely obsolete — the task types changed. IELTS has been stable by comparison. That is a genuine practical factor: returning TOEFL candidates are closer to starting over than they expect, which is covered in the 2026 changes.
One test, not both
They serve the same purpose and institutions accept either, so preparing for both splits your time for no benefit. Pick on format fit and delivery availability where you live, then commit. If you are applying to US graduate programmes you are more likely to need the GRE alongside your English test than to need a second English test.
Applying to US graduate programmes?
Most also require the GRE, which ETS administers alongside the TOEFL. Our GRE course covers Verbal and Quant in full, with adaptive practice tests and instant scoring.
Neither is objectively easier — they suit different people. The TOEFL is now much shorter (under 90 minutes against roughly 2 hours 45), entirely computer-delivered and AI-scored for speaking. IELTS keeps a face-to-face speaking interview with a human examiner. If speaking to a person helps you, IELTS plays to that; if it makes you anxious, the TOEFL avoids it.
No, and the resemblance is misleading. Both now report bands in 0.5 steps and both average four sections, but the scales differ: TOEFL runs 1–6, IELTS runs 0–9. A TOEFL 5.0 is not an IELTS 5.0. Institutions publish separate requirements for each test, and those are the only reliable comparison.
Most accept both, and a stated preference is uncommon. What does vary is the minimum each institution sets, and occasionally whether a particular test is accepted for visa purposes in a given country. Check your specific institutions and, if relevant, the immigration requirements of the country you are moving to.
Substantially. Before January 21, 2026 the TOEFL was the longer test with a 0-120 scale that looked nothing like IELTS bands. It is now the shorter of the two by a wide margin, and its scoring mechanism — average the four sections, round to the nearest half band — mirrors the IELTS approach even though the scale differs.
Both report within a couple of weeks, and both offer computer-delivered options that shorten the wait. If timing is tight, check the current turnaround for your specific location rather than assuming, since it varies by delivery mode and centre.
On IELTS, sometimes — the One Skill Retake lets you resit a single section and is available in over 110 countries, though notably not in the United States, and it must be booked within 60 days of the original test. The TOEFL has no equivalent: you retake the whole exam. In practice this matters less than it sounds, since the TOEFL is short and has no cap on attempts.
Almost never. They serve the same purpose, institutions accept either, and preparing for both splits your time for no gain. Pick the one whose format suits you and whose delivery options work where you live.