If you last compared IELTS and TOEFL before 2026, the single fact you remember about TOEFL — the 0–120 score — is on its way out. Per ETS's own scale-update page: "In January 2026, TOEFL introduced an updated score scale" — an "updated score scale (from 1 – 6 in increments of 0.5)", effective 21 January 2026. The 0–120 number now survives only as a transitional footnote on the score report, and ETS has already named the date it can disappear from view: January 2028.
IELTS, meanwhile, still reports what it has always reported — whole and half bands on a 0–9 scale. So a 2026 comparison is not "9 bands vs 120 points" any more. It is two banded scales, two delivery philosophies, and two very different answers when an immigration department writes its list of accepted tests.
The failure
The mistake this page prevents: choosing a test from a comparison table written before January 2026 — or trusting a score-conversion chart built on the old TOEFL scale. A reader who books TOEFL expecting "I need a 100" may receive a report headlined by a number like 4.5, with the familiar figure demoted to an estimate. A reader who books TOEFL for Canadian permanent residence has a worse problem — see the acceptance section below.
What actually changed on the TOEFL side — dated
Quoting ETS's scale-update page (checked 24 August 2026):
"To ease the transition for both institutions and students, we will be providing three scores on every score report for the next two years: (1) CEFR level; (2) 1 – 6 overall and section scores; and (3) a comparable 0 – 120 overall score."
ETS's own worked example of the mapping: "a score of 4.5 will be accompanied by a 90 as an estimated value on the 0-120 scale." And on when reports could carry the 1–6 score alone, ETS's answer is "Not until January 2028."
Walk that through as a reader: a TOEFL report issued in 2026 shows a CEFR level, a 1–6 score, and a 0–120 figure that ETS itself calls an estimated value — not the score of record. If a university's website still says "TOEFL 90", you need to know how that institution reads the new report. Only the institution can tell you that — ask before you book.
An IELTS report needs no such translation. The overall band is "the average of the four section band scores rounded to the nearest half band" (ielts.org) — the same 0–9 scale receiving organisations have always read.
Delivery: who is in the room
The clearest structural difference is the Speaking test. For IELTS, ielts.org states:
"The Speaking test is a face-to-face interview between the test taker and an examiner. The Speaking test is recorded."
That holds in every delivery mode — on computer, IDP confirms "The IELTS Speaking remains the same, with a face-to-face interview with an examiner", and in IELTS Online "Your Speaking test will still be with a human examiner, and happens via an online video call". In no delivery mode does a machine assess IELTS Speaking — "recorded" means the interview is audio-recorded, not machine-scored.
For TOEFL, the official wording we can quote is about location: "Test the way that's most convenient for you: in a test center or at home" (ets.org), and ETS's positioning line that it measures "all four academic English skills — reading, listening, speaking and writing". We do not have official ETS wording describing how its Speaking responses are captured or scored, so we will not characterise it here. The verified difference is this: IELTS puts a human examiner in the conversation; whether you prefer that, or prefer speaking without an interlocutor, is a question of fit — not of one test being easier. Both camps reject "easier" claims, and so do we.
One caveat on at-home testing: TOEFL offers a home option per the ETS quote above, and IELTS offers IELTS Online for the Academic test — but ielts.org is blunt that IELTS Online "is not accepted for immigration purposes". Home delivery and acceptance are separate questions for both tests.
Length and results speed
| IELTS (on computer) | TOEFL iBT | |
|---|---|---|
| Total test time | "2 hours and 45 minutes" (ielts.org) | "approximately two hours" (ets.org) |
| Score scale | 0–9 bands, whole and half | 1–6 in 0.5 steps (from Jan 2026); CEFR + comparable 0–120 shown during transition |
| Results | "IELTS on computer: 1–5 days" (ielts.org) | "available in your ETS account 3 days after your test date"; PDF report "24-48 hours" after that (ets.org) |
We are not publishing TOEFL's per-section timings — our extraction of ETS's content page returned figures for the redesigned 2026 test that we could not confirm against the live page, so check ets.org directly if section-level timing matters to you.
Acceptance: the list that decides for you
For Canadian permanent residence via Express Entry, canada.ca (page dated 2026-06-22) says "You can take any of these approved language tests:" and lists, for English: CELPIP, IELTS and PTE Core — with the requirement "You must take the IELTS General Training option." TOEFL does not appear anywhere on that page. That is the whole fact — an absence from IRCC's published list as of that date. Do not read intent into it, and check IRCC's own page before acting, because the list is IRCC's to change.
For universities and professional bodies, acceptance genuinely varies, and 2026 is the worst possible year to guess: institutions are mid-transition on the new TOEFL scale, and ETS is supplying three numbers per report precisely because of it. The only safe move is the boring one — open the admissions page of each institution you care about and confirm which test, which score, and on which scale.
What is not settled or not official here
- How any given institution converts between the 1–6 and 0–120 TOEFL scales — ETS provides "a comparable 0 – 120 overall score" as an estimate; the institution decides what it accepts.
- TOEFL per-section timings and item counts — flagged unverifiable in our source check; omitted deliberately.
- How TOEFL Speaking is delivered and scored — no official ETS wording in our verified base, so this page makes no claim.
- Any IELTS–TOEFL score equivalence — no official mapping between the two tests appears in our verified sources, and we will not invent one.
What actually costs you
- Booking TOEFL for Express Entry — it is absent from IRCC's approved-test list (canada.ca, 2026-06-22); the English options listed are CELPIP, IELTS General Training and PTE Core.
- Trusting a pre-2026 comparison table or conversion chart built on 0–120 as TOEFL's primary scale.
- Assuming a home-delivered test is accepted everywhere — for IELTS Online, ielts.org says it "is not accepted for immigration purposes".
- Choosing on rumours of difficulty. Neither test maker endorses "easier", and a test that fits how you speak — with an examiner or without one — is worth more than a rumour.
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