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Duolingo English Test Score Calculator
What a DET score of 10–160 compares to in IELTS bands, TOEFL iBT bands and PTE Academic — from each board's own published table.
Format checked against Duolingo on .
Compares to IELTS
6.5
A Duolingo 120 compares to about IELTS 6.5. Taken from the nearest published step.
TOEFL iBT 4.5 (86 of 120)
PTE Academic 55
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page is a board's own published comparison, not our arithmetic. The DET column is the Duolingo English Test Scoring Guide, section 2.4. The TOEFL column is the joint IELTS/ETS concordance study, which is on the 0–120 scale; the band in front of it is the one that total earns in ETS’s own table for the 1–6 scale it moved to in January 2026, which prints both until January 2028. The PTE column is Pearson's own table.
Where a board publishes nothing, this page prints nothing. Pearson's table stops at IELTS 4.5, so below that the PTE figure reads “not published” rather than a number we made up. Duolingo publishes no comparison below 55, so a lower score returns no equivalent at all.
The boards disagree, and it is worth knowing by how much
For IELTS 6.5, Pearson puts PTE at 55 while the IELTS partners’ own study puts it near 58.5 — six points apart in the middle of the range, where most candidates actually sit. This page uses the board that owns the target scale, because that is the table an admissions office will check against.
The July 2025 redesign, and what we set
Duolingo removed Read Aloud and Listen, Then Speak on 1 July 2025 and introduced Interactive Speaking. We set the July 2025 format: the two removed tasks are no longer handed out, and Interactive Speaking is built — six questions across two topics, each one after the first written from what you have just said.
Your score still means what it means. The reporting scale was not touched by that change — 10 to 160 in steps of 5, before and after — so the comparison table above applies either way. That is not true of every redesign: the TOEFL move to a 1–6 band in January 2026 changed the number itself.
What a calculator cannot tell you
Which questions cost you the marks. A single overall score cannot say that you handle Read and Complete well and lose most of your marks on Listen and Type — that takes a history across several sittings.
Examling keeps that history and reads it back to you: the task type costing you the most, across every paper you have sat, and the papers to practise it on.
Find out where your marks goFree to start — one section practice a day, no card.
Questions, answered
What is a good Duolingo English Test score?
It depends entirely on where you are applying. Duolingo reports 10 to 160 in steps of 5. As a rough guide against its own comparison table, 105 is around IELTS 6, 120 is around IELTS 6.5 and 130 is around IELTS 7. Most universities asking for IELTS 6.5 set their Duolingo requirement at 115 or 120, but the number that matters is the one your institution publishes.
How do I convert a Duolingo score to IELTS?
Use the Duolingo English Test Scoring Guide’s own comparison table, which is what this page applies. It maps each 5-point DET step onto an IELTS band. It is a comparison and not a conversion: the two tests measure differently, and no institution treats one as a substitute for the other unless it says so.
Can I work out my Duolingo overall score from the four subscores?
Yes. Duolingo’s 2026 Scoring Guide says the overall score is the average of the four skill subscores — Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking — rounded up to the nearest 5, so 140, 135, 135 and 135 average 136.25 and give an overall of 140. The four combined subscores beside them are each the average of two skills: Literacy is Reading and Writing, Comprehension is Reading and Listening, Conversation is Listening and Speaking, and Production is Speaking and Writing.
Does the July 2025 Duolingo redesign change what my score means?
No. Duolingo replaced Read Aloud and Listen, Then Speak with Interactive Speaking on 1 July 2025, and Examling sets the July 2025 format: the two removed tasks are not handed out and Interactive Speaking is built. The reporting scale was untouched by the change — still 10 to 160 in steps of 5 — so the comparison table on this page applies either way.
Other exams
Also weighing up an IELTS band, a TOEFL iBT band or a PTE Academic score? Those have their own pages.
A comparison is a guess about a test you have not sat. Sit a Duolingo English Test practice paper and the marking is done against the task types themselves.