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About this tool
Compare IELTS, TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic and the Duolingo English Test on cost, format, speed and acceptance for your destination.
The English Test Choice Helper ranks the four major English proficiency exams — IELTS Academic, TOEFL iBT, PTE Academic and the Duolingo English Test — for your destination using a weighted score across cost, result speed, home-testing convenience and route acceptance. Acceptance acts as a hard gate: tests that are not valid for your visa route, such as TOEFL or Duolingo for a UK SELT requirement, are excluded rather than merely down-ranked. It is built for study-abroad applicants choosing which exam to book.
Open English Test Choice Helper on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Choose your route under 'What are you applying for?' and set 'How much does exam cost matter?', 'How urgently do you need results?' and 'How important is testing from home?' to Low, Medium or High.
The helper re-ranks the four tests live, scoring each out of 100 and excluding any marked 'Not accepted for this route' rather than merely down-ranking it.
Read the best match with its fit score /100, approximate fee and result days, compare the 'Side-by-side facts' table, and click 'Copy result'.
Tests not accepted for your chosen route are excluded outright, not just scored lower.
Fees, sitting length, result times, score scales and speaking formats side by side.
Tell it whether cost, speed or home testing matters most and the ranking adapts.
The Duolingo English Test, at roughly USD 65, costs about a quarter of IELTS, TOEFL iBT or PTE Academic, which each run around USD 200-260 depending on the country. The trade-off is narrower acceptance: DET is strong with US universities but is not accepted for UK SELT visa routes or Australian student visas.
No. The UK Home Office only accepts approved Secure English Language Tests (SELTs) such as IELTS for UKVI and PTE Academic UKVI for routes that require one, and the Australian Department of Home Affairs does not accept DET for student visas. Many UK universities do accept DET for degree-level admission where they can self-assess English.
PTE Academic and the Duolingo English Test both typically release scores within about 48 hours. Computer-delivered IELTS takes around 3-5 days, TOEFL iBT around 4-8 days, and paper-based IELTS about 13 days.
IELTS uses a live face-to-face interview with a human examiner, while PTE Academic records your responses on a computer and scores them with AI. Test takers who find human interviews stressful often prefer PTE; those who communicate better with a person often prefer IELTS.