CEFR to IELTS, TOEFL, Cambridge, Duolingo and TOEIC: the conversion table, with the boards’ own caveats
By Daniel Reeves, Language Expert · Sep 2, 2026 · 11 min read
The whole conversion on one table
A CEFR level converts to a range on every exam, never a single score: B2 is IELTS 5.5 to 6.5, TOEFL iBT 4 to 4.5 on the scale in force since January 2026, 160 to 179 on the Cambridge English Scale, 100 to 125 on the Duolingo English Test, and per-section minimums on TOEIC rather than any total.
I grade speaking for a living and I am asked for this table every week, usually by someone holding a TOEFL score from a test that no longer exists. Every number below is the publishing board’s own, and every board warns that it is a range; the warnings get the next section. For the levels themselves, see CEFR Levels Explained: A1 to C2 in Plain English. In the table, TOEFL’s retired 0 to 120 total is in brackets.
• A1: IELTS 2.0 to 3.0 on IDP’s table (IELTS prints nothing below B1; IDP’s 3.0 straddles A1 and A2); TOEFL 1 to 1.5 (under 24); Cambridge 100 to 119; DET 10 to 55; TOEIC Listening 60, Reading 60, Speaking 50, Writing 30; PTE 10 to 29.
• A2: IELTS 3.0 to 3.5 on IDP’s table; TOEFL 2 to 2.5 (24 and 34 or more); Cambridge 120 to 139; DET 10 to 55; TOEIC L110, R115, S90, W70; PTE 30 to 42.
• B1: IELTS 4.0 to 5.0; TOEFL 3 to 3.5 (44 and 58 or more); Cambridge 140 to 159; DET 60 to 95; TOEIC L275, R275, S120, W120; PTE 43 to 58.
• B2: IELTS 5.5 to 6.5; TOEFL 4 to 4.5 (72 and 86 or more); Cambridge 160 to 179; DET 100 to 125; TOEIC L400, R385, S160, W150; PTE 59 to 75.
• C1: IELTS 7.0 to 8.0; TOEFL 5 to 5.5 (95 and 107 or more); Cambridge 180 to 199; DET 130 to 150; TOEIC L490, R455, S180, W180; PTE 76 to 84.
• C2: IELTS 8.5 to 9.0, with 8 borderline; TOEFL 6 (114 or more); Cambridge 200 to 230; DET 155 to 160; TOEIC publishes no C2 cut on any section; PTE 85 to 90.
Why every conversion is a range, and why the boards disagree
There are three ways to tie an exam to the CEFR. The first is a standard-setting panel: experts read the descriptors and vote on the score a minimally competent B2 candidate would get. ETS mapped TOEIC that way, requiring two-thirds of its panel to agree on each cut, and set TOEFL’s 2026 Speaking and Writing cuts the same way, in an internal study using what it calls the performance profile method.
The second is paired-score concordance: line up scores from people who sat two exams close together, as Duolingo did against TOEFL. The third is linking: TOEFL tied its new Reading and Listening to the old through a vertical linking study of takers who answered items from both.
Three methods produce three answers, and the boards say so. IELTS states that ‘there will not be a one-to-one correspondence’ between its bands and the levels; Cambridge’s comparison document says ‘Exact equivalences cannot always be demonstrated, only broad comparability.’ And they contradict each other: IELTS calls 5.5 a B2 score, while ETS’s own IELTS-to-TOEFL table puts 5.5 at 3.5, which is B1 on ETS’s map. Neither is wrong. They measured different people by different methods and rounded in different places.
CEFR to IELTS: the board’s own mapping and its caveats
In IELTS’s own words, a score of 5.5 to 6.5 ‘is equivalent to CEFR level B2’, and bands 7 to 8 correspond to C1. On the boundary: ‘a C1 minimum threshold would fall between the 6.5 and 7 bands’, so plan for 7 if an organisation wants confidence in C1.
The rounding rule decides more cases than any table. Your overall band is the mean of the four sections, with .25 rounding up to the next half band and .75 up to the next whole one. Listening 7, Reading 7, Writing 6 and Speaking 5 average 6.25 and are reported as an overall 6.5: a B2 on paper with a B1 in the mouth. I meet that candidate most weeks; nobody who quotes the overall has read the component bands beside it.
So never plan to the bottom of a range. If the institution names a band, that band is the floor. If it only says B2, ask which band it means and plan for 6.0, because 5.5 sits on a boundary the boards place differently. How to rehearse the test is covered in IELTS Speaking Practice at Home: No Tutor Required.
CEFR to TOEFL iBT: the 2026 rescale changed every table you have seen
The candidate who prompted this article wrote to me in February with a job offer, a deadline and a printout saying B2 was TOEFL 72 to 94. He had scored a 4 on a test that no longer reports 72 or 94, and thought he had failed. He had not; it took me twenty minutes and ETS’s concordance to show him why.
Since 21 January 2026 the TOEFL iBT reports 1 to 6 in half points, for each section and overall. The overall is the mean of the four sections rounded to the nearest half band, and ETS’s example shows ties going up: a mean of 5.25 is reported as 5.5. The mapping applies to each section too, so a 5 on Speaking is a C1 speaking score.
Old scores convert through ETS’s concordance, which is what the brackets in the table are. ETS adds that its statistical methods ‘do not assume equal interval’ scores; that is, the old scale was never a ruler. A page saying B2 is TOEFL 72 to 94 is not wrong about the past. It is just about the past.
CEFR to Cambridge English: B2 First, C1 Advanced, C2 Proficiency
The Cambridge English Scale runs from 80 to 230 with the level bands fixed on it, so the exams differ only in the window they report: A2 Key 82 to 150, B1 Preliminary 102 to 170, B2 First 122 to 190, C1 Advanced 142 to 210, C2 Proficiency 162 to 230. Each certifies one level below its target and, except C2 Proficiency, one above it.
On B2 First, grades B and C at 160 to 179 certify B2, grade A at 180 to 190 comes with a certificate stating C1, and 140 to 159 earns one stating B1. Cambridge’s IELTS comparison, built on its 2009 study of C1 Advanced candidates who also sat IELTS, puts 5.0 at 154, 5.5 at 162, 6.0 at 169, 6.5 at 176, 7.0 at 185 and 7.5 at 191.
Then the caveat every agent blog I have read drops: ‘very careful consideration would be needed before accepting scores on B2 First as comparable to IELTS scores of 7.0’, and an institution may specify that the score be obtained on C1 Advanced instead. A grade A on B2 First is a C1 certificate that some doors will not read as C1.
CEFR to Duolingo English Test
The Duolingo English Test reports 10 to 160, and the alignment in the table above is Duolingo’s, checked in a 2023 external study by ACS Ventures and the University of Bedfordshire’s CRELLA centre. Anchors from Duolingo’s 2026 scoring guide: 160 is IELTS 8.5 to 9, 130 is IELTS 7, 100 is IELTS 5.5.
For conversion, the TOEFL column is the trap. After TOEFL’s rescale, Duolingo announced that its existing concordance to the 0 to 120 scale remains its recommended reference, so a DET-to-TOEFL comparison you find today may still point at the old TOEFL. Check the date before you trust that column.
CEFR to TOEIC: two tests, per-section cut scores, and no total
TOEIC is the exam where the folklore is thickest. ETS’s standard-setting study set a minimum per section and no total. The 785 for B2 on job adverts is 400 plus 385. ETS Global’s European mapping sheet does print it, but as a footnoted estimate from adding the two section cuts, with ETS’s advice to read Listening and Reading separately; a 785 can still hide a Reading score below the 385 cut. ETS says outright that it does not recommend rigid cut scores.
Two more things I watch employers miss. TOEIC Listening and Reading and TOEIC Speaking and Writing are separate products, so a Listening and Reading certificate says nothing about speaking; the B2 speaking cut, 160 out of 200, belongs to a test most holders never sat. And the 2025 edition of ETS’s mapping reference reports that the Reading C1 cut rests on 45 percent of its 22-strong panel, below the two-thirds required elsewhere, which makes C1 Reading the least settled number in this article.
What B2 means for UK visas and for university admission
As of the date on this article, and to be verified on gov.uk before you rely on it: the Skilled Worker visa requires B2 in all four skills, raised from B1 for applications from 8 January 2026 (extensions of visas granted before then still need B1). The Student visa requires B2 at degree level and B1 below it; a university may run its own assessment, but it must still be equivalent to B2.
Nobody publishes a universal admission number, and anyone quoting one is selling something. The attributed positions: ETS says institutions which use the CEFR to set admission scores generally require B2 or higher for programmes with moderate language demands and C1 or higher for high ones; Cambridge positions B2 First for pre-degree study and C1 Advanced for undergraduate or postgraduate study; IELTS calls 7 to 8 the most widely accepted level for admission to universities in English-speaking countries.
The requirement on the course page is the only number that binds, and it usually has per-component minimums. A B2 certificate meets the language condition. It does not make the first seminar comfortable, and no table will.
What the tables cannot tell you: the speaking sub-score
Every table above is an overall-score table, and everyone who decides something about you meets the speaking sub-score. The visa officer hears you. The interviewer hears you. So here is how each exam produces that number. IELTS is a face-to-face interview with a certified examiner, 11 to 14 minutes in three parts, rated on fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation. Cambridge pairs you with another candidate before two examiners, one asking and one only listening: 14 minutes on B2 First, 15 on C1 Advanced, 16 on C2 Proficiency.
TOEFL records about eight minutes of you and scores it centrally, never at the test centre. Duolingo states that every answer is scored by AI, with speech rated on content, discourse coherence, fluency, grammar, lexis and pronunciation, and that institutions can play your speaking sample. TOEIC Speaking is a separate test. PTE is computer-delivered and computer-scored.
None of it tells you what you sound like. I know the overall-B2, speaking-B1 candidate by the second minute: short correct answers, every clause pre-owned, and a first follow-up that opens a pause you could park in. In the room that is a B1, and the room decides the outcome. Two honest ways to find out first. The free CEFR level test on this site estimates your reading and grammar level in five minutes, and says plainly that speaking usually sits a step below. The other is to talk, out loud, to something that answers back.
Lucida, the app whose blog you are reading, so weigh my bias accordingly, is the second: spoken conversation with an AI coach and real-time feedback, with CEFR-aligned speaking scores tracked over time. That is practice with feedback, not a prediction of an examiner’s band; the score it gives is CEFR-aligned, and only the exam issues a band. The number you will be judged on is the one none of these tables contain.
Frequently asked questions
What IELTS score is B2?
IELTS says 5.5 to 6.5 is B2, with 7 to 8 as C1. Two cautions from the boards: IELTS notes there is no one-to-one correspondence with the CEFR, and ETS’s IELTS-to-TOEFL table places 5.5 in the B1 range. If your institution names a band, that is the floor; if it only says B2, plan for 6.0.
What is C1 in IELTS?
Bands 7 to 8, so 7.5 is C1, not C2. IELTS states that the C1 threshold falls between 6.5 and 7, which is why 7 is the band to plan for. In IELTS’s own words, 8.5 and above is recognised as C2 and band 8 is borderline.
Is TOEFL 80 a B2 score?
On the retired 0 to 120 scale, 72 to 94 was widely quoted as B2. Since the 2026 rescale TOEFL reports 1 to 6 and ETS maps 4 to 4.5 to B2; 80 on the old scale corresponds to a 4, the bottom of B2. Any table still quoting 0 to 120 describes the old test.
What Duolingo English Test score is B2?
100 to 125 on Duolingo’s own alignment, with 130 to 150 as C1 and 155 to 160 as C2. Duolingo’s 2026 comparison table puts 120 to 125 at IELTS 6.5 and 130 at IELTS 7; its TOEFL column is still the old 0 to 120 scale, by Duolingo’s choice after the rescale.
What TOEIC score is B2?
There is no B2 total in ETS’s standard-setting study, only per-section minimums: Listening 400, Reading 385, Speaking 160, Writing 150. ETS Global’s European sheet does print 785, but as a footnoted estimate from adding the two cuts, with advice to read the sections separately. A 785 says nothing about speaking, a separate test.
Which exam is easiest for getting a B2 certificate?
None is officially easier. Each board set its own cut scores independently, by different methods, so the certificates are comparable, not identical. IELTS and Cambridge test speaking face to face, TOEFL records it, Duolingo scores it by AI. Choose the exam your institution lists and the speaking format you perform best in.
Hear your speaking level before you book a test date
Lucida is an AI speaking coach app for iOS and Android: you hold real spoken conversations with an AI coach, Lucy, and get real-time feedback on pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency, pace and filler words, with CEFR-aligned speaking scores tracked over time. Free to download on iOS and Android; some features require a subscription.
