Canada's economic immigration programs, the routes for people who come to work rather than to join family, ask you to prove your English with a test from a short official list. Three English tests are on that list, and they are all treated the same once your score is converted. So the question is not "which test does Canada prefer" (it has no preference) but "which test is the easiest for you to book, sit and pass".

Who this is for

You are planning an application through Express Entry, a provincial nomination, or another skilled-worker route, and you have not yet booked a test. This post compares the three accepted English tests so you can pick one. If you have not met the scale Canada uses yet, read Canada's language tests, CLB and NCLC, explained first; this post assumes you know what a CLB level is and does not repeat that explanation.

The words you will meet

• IRCC is Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the government department that decides immigration applications.
• CLB is the Canadian Language Benchmarks, a scale from 1 to 12 that IRCC uses to describe English ability. Every test result is converted into a CLB level, and the immigration rules are written in CLB levels, never in raw test scores.
• The four abilities are listening, reading, writing and speaking. Every accepted test scores each one separately, and IRCC records a separate CLB level for each. There is no single overall score in the immigration rules.

Which tests does IRCC accept?

IRCC's language testing page for Express Entry lists exactly three English tests:

• CELPIP, and only the CELPIP-General version.
• IELTS, and only the General Training version. The page also states that IELTS One Skill Retake is not accepted (more on that below).
• PTE Core.

The list is the whole rule. A test that is not on it does not count for these programs, however well known it is. That means TOEFL is not accepted, IELTS Academic is not accepted (it is a different test from IELTS General Training, built for university entry), PTE Academic is not accepted (PTE Core is a separate test), and the shorter CELPIP-General LS, which covers listening and speaking only, is not accepted for these programs either. If you already hold one of those results, it will not do the job here.

The same page states that your result must be less than two years old when you complete your Express Entry profile and when you apply for permanent residence.

IELTS General Training

IELTS is jointly owned by the British Council, IDP and Cambridge University Press and Assessment, and its official site is ielts.org. The General Training test has four parts: listening (about 30 minutes plus time to transfer answers), reading (60 minutes), writing (60 minutes) and speaking (11 to 14 minutes).

You can sit IELTS on paper or on computer at a test centre. Whichever you choose, the speaking part is a face-to-face conversation with a trained examiner. On the computer version IELTS says speaking happens on the same day as the other parts, and it publishes results 1 to 2 days after the test (ways to take IELTS). For the paper version IELTS quotes results within 13 days (IELTS results). IELTS also offers an online, at-home version, but its own site says that version is not accepted by immigration authorities, so it is no use for Canada.

IELTS says it has over 4,500 test locations across 160 countries, so it is usually the easiest of the three to find near you.

CELPIP General

CELPIP was developed at the University of British Columbia and is run from Canada; its official site is celpip.ca. The CELPIP-General test covers all four abilities on a computer in a single sitting of under three hours, with no separate speaking session: in the speaking part you reply out loud to prompts on the screen, recorded by the computer rather than spoken to a person (CELPIP test format). CELPIP says results arrive in 2 to 4 days.

CELPIP publishes its Canadian price on that same format page (CAD 295 plus taxes at the time we checked) and says international pricing varies, so treat that figure as a guide and check the page for your own country. Fees for all three tests change from time to time.

CELPIP is offered at over 200 locations in more than 40 countries, listed on its test locations page. Outside Canada the network is thinner than IELTS, so check that page before you decide.

PTE Core

PTE Core is run by Pearson and was built for Canadian immigration; its official page is pearsonpte.com/pte-core. It is a computer-based test of around two hours, taken in one sitting at a Pearson test centre, with three sections (speaking and writing together, then reading, then listening). You speak into a headset microphone and the test is scored by Pearson's automated scoring engine, so nobody interviews you (PTE Core test format). Pearson says most people get results within two business days, and up to five in some cases. PTE Core cannot be taken at home.

Pearson says PTE Core is offered at over 500 test centres worldwide and publishes fees per country through a price finder on its site rather than as one figure, so check the price for your country there.

Which test suits which person?

• You want to talk to a real person. IELTS is the only one of the three where speaking is a conversation with an examiner. Some people find that calmer than talking to a screen; others find it more stressful. Be honest with yourself about which you are.
• You would rather speak to a computer, at your own pace. CELPIP and PTE Core both record your speaking through a microphone, with no examiner in the room.
• You prefer writing by hand. IELTS on paper is the only fully paper option among the three; CELPIP and PTE Core are computer only.
• You want one short sitting. CELPIP (under three hours) and PTE Core (around two hours) are each done in one continuous sitting. IELTS is longer overall.
• You need a result fast. All three quote a few days for computer-delivered tests; IELTS on paper takes the longest.
• Availability near you. This decides it for many people. IELTS has by far the widest network; CELPIP and PTE Core are worth checking city by city on the provider pages linked above.

None of these differences change your immigration outcome. The report treats a CLB 7 from any of the three the same way.

What if you need to retake?

Be careful with IELTS One Skill Retake, which lets you re-sit a single part of the test. IRCC's language testing page states plainly that it is not accepted for Express Entry: for Canada, an IELTS retake means the full test again. For CELPIP and PTE Core, the providers' own pages are the place to check the current retake and rebooking rules, because they change.

If you are retaking to raise a score, the sibling posts on how your score converts to CLB and how to raise your CRS score show which ability is worth the extra points. The CRS score explainer covers why language carries so much weight.

How long does a result stay valid?

Two years from the test date, and it must still be within that window both when you complete your Express Entry profile and when you submit your permanent residence application, per IRCC's page. If you test early in your planning, count forward two years and make sure your application will land inside it.

What this means for your report

Our questionnaire accepts a result from any of the accepted tests and converts it to CLB levels itself, so your choice of test never changes your assessment. Where a result is close to running out, the report carries the checklist step "Make sure your language test result is less than 2 years old", so the expiry does not catch you by surprise. That is the whole of what the report does with the test you pick.

Next step

If you are still working out where you stand, the free Express Entry eligibility checker shows how a given CLB level plays across the three federal programs, and our Canada page lists the routes we assess. When you are ready for a full picture across every route, start the free questionnaire.