Compare TOEFL Essentials to Other Tests

See how the TOEFL Essentials test compares to other English-language tests. With its innovative test design, it combines the convenience and affordability you want, without compromising the quality institutions trust. As a reliable and accurate TOEFL test from ETS, it shows universities that you hold yourself to high quality standards.

	TOEFL Essentials Test	Duolingo^® English Test	IELTS^® Academic¹	Pearson^® Test of English²
Test Experience
Convenient at home access	yes	yes	no	yes
Shorter test time (about 1.5 hours or less)	yes	yes	no	no
Affordable cost (US$120 or less)	yes	yes	no	no
Can be completed in 1 test session	yes	yes	no	yes
Speaking responses are recorded at the computer, eliminating the potential biases of an in-person interview.	yes	yes	no	yes
Test Design
Includes academic communication tasks³	yes	no	yes	yes
Includes a Personal Video Statement (unscored)	yes	yes⁴	no	no
Measures English proficiency for communication, beyond basic language knowledge	yes	no⁵	yes	yes
Items are developed by human assessment experts rather than auto-generated by computers.	yes	no	yes	yes
Scores and Security
View unofficial listening and reading scores at the end of the test	yes	no	no	no
Scores sent in 6 days or less	yes	yes	yes	yes
Test fee includes unlimited score reports sent to institutions	yes	yes	no	yes
Reports section scores for the 4 core English proficiency skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking	yes	no⁶	yes	yes
Reports foundational skills in addition to section scores	yes	no	no	yes⁷
At home test security includes live, human proctoring for 100% of the test administration, in addition to AI security measures	yes	no	N/A⁸	no
Writing and speaking responses are scored by anonymous human raters assisted by AI technology, rather than by machine alone	yes⁹	no	no	no

_{1 These descriptions do not apply to IELTS Indicator or the IELTS General Training test.}

_{2 These descriptions do not apply to the Versant™ test from Pearson.}

_{3 For a review of the tasks in the Duolingo English Test, see Wagner (2019).}

_{4 Called the "video interview" in the Duolingo English Test.}

_{5 The Duolingo English Test does not contain extended reading or listening comprehension tasks.}

_{6 Duolingo English Test subscores are called Literacy, Comprehension, Conversation and Production, which do not correspond to the skills most institutions use when setting skill requirements: listening, reading, writing and speaking. (Source: https://englishtest.duolingo.com/scores)}

_{7 Called "enabling skills" in the Pearson Test of English.}

_{8 At home option not available for this test.}

_{9 Responses to the Writing and Speaking tasks of the TOEFL Essentials test will initially be evaluated by certified human raters. Use of artificial intelligence (AI) scoring engines will be added in the near future, further assisting human raters to increase the accuracy and consistency of scores.}