Duolingo English Test vs IELTS
Take the Duolingo English Test if the universities on your list accept it and money or time is tight — it is dramatically cheaper, an hour long, and taken at home. Take IELTS if any target institution does not accept DET, or if you need a result for a visa, where acceptance is far narrower.
| Duolingo | IELTS | |
|---|---|---|
| Run by | Duolingo | British Council, IDP and Cambridge |
| Length | About 1 hour | About 2 hours 45 minutes |
| Score scale | 10–160, in steps of 5 | Band 0–9, in half bands |
| Usual university ask | 115–130 | 6.5–7.5 overall |
| Results in | Usually within 2 days | 3–5 days on computer, up to 13 days on paper |
| Taken | At home, on your own computer | Test centre, on paper or computer |
| Cost | Dramatically cheaper than the other three — often a third or less | Among the more expensive of the four |
Check acceptance first, everything else second
This is the one comparison where the deciding factor is usually not the test at all. Acceptance of the Duolingo English Test expanded enormously and is now broad among universities, particularly in the United States and Canada. It is much narrower for immigration purposes, and a small number of institutions still do not take it.
IELTS is accepted essentially everywhere that requires proof of English. If one programme on your shortlist does not take DET, the cost advantage evaporates — you would have to sit IELTS anyway.
So: open every target programme's admissions page and check, before comparing anything else. Nothing below matters if the answer is no.
An hour at home, and what that costs you
DET is adaptive. Questions get harder when you answer correctly and easier when you do not, so the test locates your level in about an hour rather than testing everyone on everything for nearly three. That is a genuine piece of engineering, not a shortcut.
The trade is granularity. IELTS gives you four skill bands and, on request, a detailed breakdown. DET gives an overall score out of 160 plus subscores, and it is harder to look at a DET result and know what to fix.
The other trade is the environment. Taking a test at home sounds easier and often is not. The proctoring is strict — you cannot look away from the screen, and the session is reviewed. Candidates get results invalidated for glancing at a second monitor.
Speaking is folded in, not sectioned off
IELTS gives Speaking its own fourteen minutes with its own examiner and its own band. DET distributes speaking tasks through the adaptive test alongside typed and reading tasks, and reports it as one of several subscores.
The practical consequence is that DET is majority typing and clicking. If your spoken English is far stronger than your written English, IELTS shows that off and DET partly hides it. If the reverse is true, DET flatters you.
The cost difference is not marginal
DET typically costs a fraction of IELTS — often around a third or less, though both vary by country. Add travel to a test centre and a day off work to the IELTS side and the gap widens.
That matters most if you might need to sit twice. Two DET attempts frequently cost less than one IELTS, which changes the strategy: with DET you can afford to treat the first sitting as a diagnostic. With IELTS most people cannot.
Common questions
Is the Duolingo English Test respected?
By universities, increasingly yes — acceptance is now broad, particularly across North America. For visa and immigration purposes it is accepted in far fewer places than IELTS. The honest answer depends entirely on who is reading your result.
What DET score equals IELTS 7?
Duolingo publishes a comparison placing roughly 115–120 near an IELTS 7, but treat any conversion as indicative. Universities state their own DET requirement directly, and that number is the one that counts.
Can I take the Duolingo English Test more than once?
Yes, subject to Duolingo's limits on attempts in a given period. Because it costs so much less than IELTS, sitting it twice is a realistic plan rather than a painful one.
The only way to actually know
Sit a timed mock of each Speaking section and compare how you felt, not just what you scored. The first one of each is free.