Comparing Duolingo, IELTS and TOEFL
The Duolingo English Test has become a widely accepted proof of English proficiency, but many universities still publish their requirements in IELTS bands or TOEFL iBT totals. This converter bridges the gap, taking your Duolingo total and showing the IELTS band and TOEFL range it roughly corresponds to so you can check it against a course’s stated minimum.
Approximate concordance at key score levels
| Duolingo (DET) | Approx. IELTS overall | Approx. TOEFL iBT total |
|---|---|---|
| 90 | 5.5 | 61–78 |
| 100 | 6.0 | 79–93 |
| 110 | 6.5 | 79–93 |
| 120 | 6.5 | 94–101 |
| 125 | 7.0 | 94–101 |
| 130 | 7.0 | 102–110 |
| 135 | 7.5 | 102–110 |
| 140 | 7.5 | 111–120 |
| 145 | 8.0 | 111–120 |
| 155 | 8.5 | 110+ |
These ranges are derived from Duolingo’s published concordance and should be treated as approximate bands rather than exact equivalences.
How it works
The Duolingo English Test reports an overall score from 10 to 160 in five-point steps. The converter places your score in a band drawn from the official concordance and returns the matching IELTS overall band and TOEFL iBT total range. For example, a Duolingo 120 maps to about an IELTS 6.5 and a TOEFL iBT in the low-to-mid 90s, while a Duolingo 130 rises to roughly an IELTS 7.0. The bands widen toward the extremes because the relationship between the tests is an average, not a one-to-one line.
How the DET differs from IELTS and TOEFL in format
Understanding what each test measures helps explain why the concordance is approximate rather than exact. The Duolingo English Test is taken at home under AI proctoring and takes about an hour. It uses adaptive item selection, meaning question difficulty adjusts based on your responses, and it tests listening, reading, writing, and speaking in an interleaved format rather than in separate timed sections.
IELTS (Academic) is a paper or computer-based test lasting about 2 hours 45 minutes, with discrete sections and strict timing. The listening and reading sections each contribute a band score that averages into the overall 0.0–9.0 band.
TOEFL iBT is a four-section test taken in a testing centre (or at home), lasting about 2 hours. Each section scores 0–30, for a total of 0–120.
Because the formats differ significantly, a concordance can only estimate an average equivalence across test-takers — any individual can perform relatively better or worse on one format than another.
Notes on accuracy
Treat these figures as a guide. The three tests are scored differently and assess English in different formats, so a concordance reflects an average relationship rather than a guaranteed conversion — your own result on one test may sit above or below the converted value from another. Universities also set their own minimums for each accepted test and usually want the genuine score from the test you sat, not a converted one. Use this tool to confirm your Duolingo result is in the right ballpark, then read the exact admissions requirement for the test your target course accepts.