Test of English as a Foreign Language (Internet-Based Test)(TOEFL iBT)

About the exam

About TOEFL iBT

A TOEFL iBT exam booked now is built and scored differently from one taken before 2026. Every section and the overall result are reported on a 1 to 6 scale, Reading and Listening adapt to how you answer, and the task list is new. Someone booking from India meets that change twice: once when ETS prices the test in dollars and names the one ID it will accept, and again when a university page still states its requirement in 0 to 120 points.

ETS runs the TOEFL iBT as a computer-delivered measure of academic English in four sections: Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking. Its TOEFL iBT Test Content and Structure page lists two delivery routes, an authorised test centre or your own computer at home watched by a live human proctor.

The current shape of the test comes from a redesign ETS announced in its TOEFL iBT press release of 29 May 2025. From January 2026, Reading and Listening moved to a multistage adaptive design that adjusts in real time to a candidate's performance, niche topics such as Greek mythology gave way to more real-world academic content, and a 1-6 score scale aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) arrived. The same release promised scores within 72 hours or less.

ETS's score guidance for test takers fixes the switch-over at 21 January 2026: tests from that date are reported on the 1 to 6 scale, and for a two-year transition period after January 2026 the report also shows a comparable overall score on the 0 to 120 scale. Anyone holding an older score, or reading an older university requirement, is dealing with the previous scale.

At a glance

TOEFL iBT highlights

Calendar

Important dates

The TOEFL iBT has no exam date of its own: you choose an appointment, and the deadlines count back from it.

ETS's FAQ on taking the test puts appointments at up to 6 days a week and sends you to the Schedule Your Test page or your ETS account for the dates and locations actually open near you.

The TOEFL iBT Information Bulletin, whose policies run from July 2026 through June 2027, sets these windows around your own test date.

For planning against admission deadlines, ETS's how to register page suggests a test date at least 2 to 3 months before your earliest admissions deadline, and registering 4 months before the date you want. That leaves room for a retest if the first score falls short.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

ETS publishes no academic qualification and no age limit for the TOEFL iBT. The conditions it does set are about identity and how often you sit.

ETS's FAQ about the TOEFL iBT says there are no age restrictions, while noting that the content is at the level of a first-year university student. The Bulletin suggests that a candidate aged 15 or younger testing at a centre be accompanied by a parent or other authorised adult aged 18 or older, who then has to complete and sign a release form at the centre.

Retakes are unlimited but spaced. The Bulletin bars taking the test more than once in a 3-day period, even when you cancelled the earlier scores, and bars booking a second date within 3 days of an appointment you already hold.

Accommodation requests come first: ETS must approve them before you can book a date. The Bulletin puts ETS's documentation review at approximately four to six weeks once the request and complete paperwork reach ETS, so the request belongs well ahead of any target date.

Step by step

Application process and fee

Booking happens in your ETS account, and every figure attached to it, the India test fee included, is quoted in US dollars rather than rupees.

You can register online through your ETS account or by phone using the contact details for your country, according to ETS's how to register page. The name and date of birth you register with must exactly match the ID you present on test day; if they do not, you cannot test and the fee is not refunded. Phone registration runs on its own clock in the Bulletin: regular phone registration closes 7 full days before the test date, and express phone registration at 5pm, local test centre time, on the day before the appointment.

Selecting India in the country list on ETS India's TOEFL iBT Test Fees page shows a test fee of US$173, the figure the country fee list behind that dropdown records for India. The same page lists these service charges.

ETS prices the additional score report two ways: US$29 on its India fee page, but US$25 on its score guidance page and in its score reports FAQ. It is also inconsistent on tax. The fee page notes that TOEFL iBT prices exclude VAT or other applicable taxes except in EU countries, while the Bulletin says test fees include sales, value-added or similar taxes except in a named list of countries, and India is not on that list.

No third document settles either point. The Bulletin sends test takers in India to a separate India edition at etsindia.org, but that address now redirects to ETS India's site, whose TOEFL fee page links this same global Bulletin, and the India edition still sitting on that server covers the testing year that ended in June 2026.

There is no separate cancellation charge on the fee page. Under the Bulletin's refund policy, cancelling by the 4-day deadline triggers an automatic refund of 50% of the original test fee. The Bulletin's payment list includes RuPay cards alongside Visa, MasterCard and other card brands, as well as PayPal and Alipay; the electronic cheque it also accepts has to be drawn on a bank in the United States, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands or Canada, so a card or a wallet is what most people paying from India are left with.

Before the exam

Admit card and exam day

The Bulletin and ETS's test-day pages describe no admit card. What gets you in is an ID that matches your registration exactly.

In India that comes down to one document. Pick India from the country list on ETS's TOEFL iBT ID requirements page and the entry shows a passport carrying name, photograph and signature as the single primary document for a citizen testing at home; anyone testing outside their country of citizenship must bring a valid passport, and ETS writes that there are no exceptions. The Bulletin closes the obvious substitute, naming the Aadhaar card among documents it will not take in any circumstance.

Test-centre candidates face a hard entry rule in the Bulletin's test day rules: arrive at least 30 minutes before your assigned start time to get through check-in, because arriving or checking in after that start time means no test and no refund. The Bulletin also says pencils and scratch paper are provided, and that ID checks can include photographs, fingerprinting and biometric voice and photo identification.

For the Home Edition, the Bulletin opens check-in 15 minutes before your scheduled time and closes it 30 minutes after; if you have not checked in by then, the test is cancelled without refund. ETS's Home Edition policies FAQ treats the IDVaaS identity check as a job to finish before test day, no later than 48 hours ahead, and warns that leaving it undone can delay the start of your test, because check-in cannot begin until the verification is complete. The at home testing requirements page asks for a desktop or laptop with one screen and one keyboard, a room where you are alone with the doors closed, and a whiteboard or a sheet of paper inside a transparent sheet protector for notes; failing those requirements on the day means no refund and no free reschedule.

Structure

Exam pattern

The current test has four sections, adaptive Reading and Listening, and no scheduled break. ETS's content page sets out the tasks, item counts and base times.

Those base times exclude directions, and the content page tells candidates to allow approximately two hours, because an adapting test varies in time and items. The TOEFL iBT 2026 Update Test Blueprint and Specifications Document, which describes itself as subject to minor revisions until launch, puts the minimum test time at 1 hr 23 min and the maximum at 1 hr 29 min.

In that blueprint, Reading and Listening are two-stage adaptive: a router stage followed by a lower or an upper module. Writing and Speaking are linear, so every test taker on a given form receives the same tasks.

Skipping a whole section voids the attempt. The content page says the test is not scored unless you complete at least one Reading question, one Listening question, one Speaking task and one Writing task.

Scores come in half-point steps from 1 to 6 for each section and overall. ETS averages the four section scores and rounds to the nearest half band to get the overall result; its TOEFL Score Scale Update: A Guide for Institutions gives 5.125 becoming 5 and 5.25 becoming 5.5 as examples. Under the old scale the total was the sum of the sections.

What to study

Syllabus

ETS's blueprint for the 2026 test covers the full CEFR range from A1 to C2, and it describes each task by the skill it is meant to show. Its task types are the ones ETS's content page lists for the current test.

The blueprint notes that Reading and Listening item counts include non-scored items used to gather data for future tests. Easier Reading texts typically contain 15 to 50 words and more complex ones may extend to 200 words, and Listening audio runs from brief utterances to monologic speech of up to 250 words, played once.

According to the blueprint, Listening stimuli use AI-generated audio and sometimes human voice actors, with a generally balanced representation of accents such as U.S./Canadian, Australian and British English. On scoring weight, each scored Reading and Listening item and each Build a Sentence item is worth 1 point, while Write an Email, Write for an Academic Discussion, Listen and Repeat and Take an Interview items are each worth up to 5.

How to prepare

Preparation and books

ETS's test preparation page lists TOEFL TestReady, which it calls a personalised prep portal with practice tests, courses, guides, books, performance insights and progress tracking.

Memorised material carries a real risk on this test. ETS's general testing policies FAQ treats memorised answers as a policy violation, says ETS uses detection software to find writing that resembles outside sources or other test takers' responses, and warns that a template used for more than a general structure probably breaks its rules.

Before buying anything from ETS, note the Bulletin's rule that orders for prep products cannot be cancelled and carry no refunds or returns.

Where it is held

Exam centres

India is on ETS's list of countries where the TOEFL iBT test is available, and that page says the Home Edition is available in every listed location, while nearly all of them also have test centres for in-person testing.

No ETS page prints the Indian centres themselves. The testing options page offers a Find a Test Center button that leads to the ETS account sign-in, and the country list page stops at country names, pointing readers to the Schedule page to find test locations.

The old paper route is closed. ETS India's TOEFL iBT test content and structure page for institutions says the TOEFL iBT Paper Edition was no longer offered after 20 January 2024, though Paper Edition scores remained valid for two years after the test date.

After the exam

Answer key

ETS's score pages and the Bulletin describe no answer key for the TOEFL iBT. At the end of the test you see unofficial Reading and Listening scores, and ETS's score guidance says Reading and Listening scores cannot be reviewed or appealed, while Speaking and Writing can go to a paid score review.

Scores

Result and scorecard

Official scores reach your ETS account 3 days after the test, according to ETS's score guidance. The expected date is displayed at the end of the test, and you receive an email when the scores are available.

The test fee includes up to four official score reports sent to institutions, agencies or other recipients, and ETS's score guidance on sending scores gives delivery times by the recipient's method: 4 to 8 business days through ETS Data Manager, 8 to 10 through server feeds, and 10 to 12 business days plus mailing time by post. ETS gives two deadlines for naming those recipients, the score guidance saying until 10 p.m. on the day of your test and the Bulletin until 10pm local test centre time on the day before it, so naming them by the earlier point meets both.

For two years, ETS's guide for institutions says every report carries three scores: the CEFR level, the 1 to 6 overall and section scores, and a comparable 0 to 120 overall score. That comparable score represents the midpoint of the matching range on the old scale.

MyBest scores, per the Bulletin, combine your best section scores from all valid TOEFL iBT scores of the last 2 years. ETS's score guidance adds that on a report for a test on the 1 to 6 scale, older 0 to 120 scores in the MyBest section are converted to 1 to 6, while a report for an older test shows only prior-scale scores there; whether an institution accepts MyBest is its own call.

The on-screen choice after the test covers every section at once: report the scores, or cancel all of them. Cancelling brings no refund, and reported scores cannot be cancelled later. The Bulletin lets you reinstate cancelled scores within 60 days of the test date for a fee, with scores reaching you and your institutions about 3 weeks after the request and payment.

A Speaking, Writing or combined score review must be requested within 30 days of the test and is not available once scores have gone to any institution or agency. Under the Bulletin's score review rules, scoring specialists review the responses; if the original score is confirmed you are told by email within 3 weeks, and if it changes, higher or lower, the revised score becomes official. A TOEFL iBT result also has a shelf life of 2 years: past that the Bulletin says a score can no longer be reported, nor verified for an institution that asks about it, so a score held back for a later application round can expire before it is used.

Scores you need

Cutoff

ETS's score guidance says neither ETS nor the TOEFL Program sets a pass or fail score; each institution sets its own requirement. Because requirements set before 2026 were written on the 0 to 120 scale, ETS's TOEFL Score Scale Update guide for institutions recommends these equivalents.

The same guide for institutions explains the trade-off behind that table. A 5 corresponds to 95 and up, through 106, on the old total, so a requirement of 5.5 would cut the chance of admitting someone below the old 100 but raise the chance of turning away candidates at 100 or higher; ETS therefore suggests 5 for institutions that required 100. ETS's score reports FAQ is explicit that these decisions are made by each university.

If your score is from a test taken before 21 January 2026, or a university still lists an old total, ETS's guide compares the two scales like this.

When a university lists only a 0 to 120 requirement, ETS's score guidance says to compare it with the comparable 0 to 120 estimate printed on your report, with nothing to convert yourself.

Getting a seat

Counselling and seat allotment

Nothing inside ETS follows the score report. The Bulletin limits ETS's part to sending your scores to the recipients you designate, so whether a band clears an English condition, and every step after that, belongs to the institution reading it.

Where it is accepted

Participating institutes

ETS's score guidance says the scores are accepted by over 13,000 institutions in more than 160 countries, a worldwide figure. Institutions use them as a measure of academic English, to check that applicants have the English their programmes need.

Acceptance is not uniform in the details. The same score guidance notes that institutions update their requirements to the 1 to 6 format at different times, so some pages still list 0 to 120, and it advises contacting the institution to confirm its current requirement.

Australia has its own condition. ETS's Go to Australia page says Australian visa purposes require TOEFL iBT Australia taken at an authorised test centre, and that Home Edition scores are not currently accepted by the Australian Department of Home Affairs. The Bulletin adds that only tests taken before 21 January 2026 and TOEFL iBT Australia are currently approved for Australian visa purposes.

Get help

Contact

For TOEFL iBT questions from India, ETS's contacts page for TOEFL test takers lists the India number 1-800-123-9418 and, for support after 8PM IST, directs callers to the general support numbers, which include +1-609-771-7100. Have your date of birth, email address, test date and any registration number to hand before calling; the page says its representatives give out personal information only to the test taker.

If no document you hold satisfies the ID rules, for example because you have refugee status, the Bulletin wants you to reach ETS's Office of Testing Integrity at least 7 days before registering, by email at TSReturns@ets.org or on +1-609-406-5430 (Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 5:30pm US Eastern time). Requests or complaints about your personal information go to TOEFL Services at toefl@ets.org.

Source

Official links

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Disclaimer

Disclaimer

SCORING CHANGE: moved to a 1-6 scale from Jan 2026 (0-120 comparable during transition) – verify the scale used for the target cycle. Fees, dates, score validity (2 years), and university cutoffs are per-cycle/per-institution. Anything per-cycle here is stated for the cycle it names and is taken from the conducting body's own notification; confirm it on the official website before acting on it. Expertie does not conduct any exam, process applications or charge fees.

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