{
  "seo": {
    "title": "TOEFL and CEFR: The Official Score Correspondences",
    "description": "TOEFL iBT switched scoring systems on January 21, 2026. See the official ETS CEFR correspondences for both the old and new scales, still used side by side.",
    "keywords": "TOEFL to CEFR, TOEFL 95 CEFR level, new TOEFL score 2026, TOEFL iBT 1-6 scale, TOEFL CEFR equivalency, TOEFL B2 C1"
  },
  "hero": {
    "title": "CEFR and TOEFL: The Official Correspondences, Old and New Scoring Systems"
  },
  "intro": {
    "paragraphs": [
      "The TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) is the world's most widely taken academic English test for university admissions, published by ETS (Educational Testing Service). Its main version, the TOEFL iBT, is taken online and assesses four skills: Reading, Listening, Writing, and Speaking.",
      "Here's the essential starting point for this page: ETS changed the TOEFL iBT scoring system on January 21, 2026, replacing the historical 0-to-120-point scale with a native 1-to-6 scale designed explicitly to align with the CEFR. The two systems currently coexist during a transition period: score reports still show the old scale alongside the new one, a situation expected to continue until roughly January 2028. The practical upshot for anyone looking up a CEFR correspondence: the answer depends on knowing which scoring system is in play — which, in practice, often comes down to when the test was taken."
    ]
  },
  "newSystem": {
    "title": "The new TOEFL iBT system (since January 21, 2026)",
    "p1Before": "Since January 21, 2026, the TOEFL iBT has been scored on a 1-to-6 scale, in half-point increments, applied identically to the overall score and to each of the four skills. ETS's technical manual puts it plainly: the new test is ",
    "p1Quote": "designed to cover the full range from A1 to C2.",
    "caption": "Correspondence between CEFR levels and the new TOEFL iBT scores (1-to-6 scale)",
    "headers": ["CEFR Level", "Score (Reading, Listening, Writing, Speaking, Overall)"],
    "rows": [
      ["C2", "6"],
      ["C1", "5 – 5.5"],
      ["B2", "4 – 4.5"],
      ["B1", "3 – 3.5"],
      ["A2", "2 – 2.5"],
      ["A1", "1 – 1.5"]
    ],
    "p2": "The principle is direct, and ETS sums it up in one line:",
    "quote": "a score of 5 on any section aligns with C1 proficiency for that particular section.",
    "p3": "A score of 5 in Reading, Listening, Writing, or Speaking means C1 for that specific skill — no separate per-skill conversion table needed. How the overall score is calculated changed at the same time: it's now the average of the four skill scores, rounded to the nearest half point (before 2026, the overall score was a sum of the four 0-to-30 skill scores, producing a total out of 120).",
    "source": "Source: ETS, TOEFL iBT® Technical Manual (Manna, Li, Papageorgiou & Gu, October 2025)."
  },
  "oldSystem": {
    "title": "The former TOEFL iBT system (0-to-120 scale)",
    "p1": "Through January 20, 2026, the TOEFL iBT was scored on a scale totaling 0 to 120 points (0 to 30 per skill). This scale still appears on score reports during the transition period, alongside the new system.",
    "p2": "The CEFR correspondence for this system rests on ETS research published in 2008 (Tannenbaum & Wylie) and revised in 2015 (Papageorgiou, Tannenbaum, Bridgeman & Cho). Important detail: only the B1, B2, and C1 levels ever received a published cut score on this scale — ETS never published an A1, A2, or C2 threshold for the 0-to-120 system.",
    "caption": "Official CEFR cut scores of the former TOEFL iBT system (0–120), per skill and in total",
    "headers": ["CEFR Level", "Reading /30", "Listening /30", "Speaking /30", "Writing /30", "Total /120"],
    "rows": [
      ["C1", "24", "22", "25", "24", "95"],
      ["B2", "18", "17", "20", "17", "72"],
      ["B1", "4", "9", "16", "13", "42"]
    ],
    "source": "Source: ETS Research Memorandum RM-15-06 (Papageorgiou, Tannenbaum, Bridgeman & Cho, 2015), revising ETS Research Report RR-08-34 (Tannenbaum & Wylie, 2008)."
  },
  "continuity": {
    "title": "A reassuring continuity between the two systems",
    "p1": "Despite the change of scale, the two systems line up exactly wherever they can be compared. On the old scale, the B2 threshold sits at 72 out of 120, and the C1 threshold at 95 out of 120 (see the table above). Convert the new score back to the historical scale, and those same thresholds reappear precisely:",
    "caption": "Conversion between the new TOEFL iBT score (1–6) and the equivalent historical total (0–120)",
    "headers": ["Score (1–6)", "CEFR Level", "Equivalent historical total (0–120)"],
    "rows": [
      ["6", "C2", "114+"],
      ["5", "C1", "95+"],
      ["4", "B2", "72+"]
    ],
    "p2": "95 and 72 on both sides: this exact match is unlikely to be a coincidence. Spiros Papageorgiou, one of the authors of the 2015 study behind the old system, is also among the authors of the 2025 technical manual documenting the new one. The new system's B2 and C1 thresholds look built in direct continuity with the 2015 research, rather than reinvented from scratch."
  },
  "ranges": {
    "title": "What these numbers don't tell you: ranges, not exact points",
    "p1": "Even this page's cleanest-looking table — the new system's — is still made of ranges, not single fixed points. A Reading score of 4 on the new scale, for instance, actually spans a range of scores on the old 0-to-120 scale, not one isolated value. ETS says as much directly, about its own score comparison tables:",
    "quote": "Score comparison tables are useful as general guiding tools, but they cannot predict the exact score each individual test taker would receive.",
    "p2": "The new system carries its own unavoidable margin of measurement error, too: the standard error of measurement (SEM) runs between 0.32 and 0.37 points depending on the skill, on a scale where each half-point marks a CEFR sub-level. That's not trivial — a score sitting right at a threshold could reflect this margin of error as much as a genuine difference in ability."
  },
  "otherFormats": {
    "title": "Other TOEFL formats",
    "intro": "This page covers the TOEFL iBT, the most widely used version. Two other formats exist, each handled differently:",
    "itp": "TOEFL ITP (a paper-based format often used for institutional placement) has its own official CEFR correspondence, separate from the iBT's, covering levels A2 through C1.",
    "essentials": "TOEFL Essentials (a shorter format, scored on its own 1-to-12 scale) has no CEFR correspondence published by ETS at this time."
  },
  "useCases": {
    "title": "Use cases",
    "intro": "The CEFR↔TOEFL correspondence mainly serves an academic purpose: making sense of a TOEFL score in the context of a university application, a scholarship, or an international partnership.",
    "items": [
      {
        "title": "A candidate presenting a recent TOEFL score",
        "body": "Since January 21, 2026, a TOEFL iBT score is reported under the new system (1 to 6) and comes with a CEFR level attached directly — no lookup needed."
      },
      {
        "title": "A candidate presenting a TOEFL score from before 2026",
        "body": "The score, expressed on the old 0-to-120 scale, remains valid and reads against the former-system table above — keeping in mind that no official CEFR correspondence was ever published for a score that falls, on that scale, below the B1 threshold (42) or above the C1 threshold (95)."
      },
      {
        "title": "International admissions offices",
        "body": "During the transition period, application files may include TOEFL scores on either scale. Knowing which system a given score belongs to — and therefore which table applies — is the first thing to check."
      }
    ]
  },
  "faq": {
    "title": "Frequently asked questions",
    "items": [
      {
        "question": "What CEFR level is a TOEFL score of 95?",
        "answer": "It depends on the system. On the old scale (0-120, for a test taken before January 21, 2026), a total score of 95 corresponds to the C1 threshold. On the new system (1-6, from 2026 onward), the equivalent score is 5, which also corresponds to C1 — the two line up exactly at this threshold."
      },
      {
        "question": "Did TOEFL change its scoring in 2026?",
        "answer": "Yes. Since January 21, 2026, the TOEFL iBT has been scored on a new 1-to-6 scale, designed to align directly with the CEFR. The old system (0 to 120) still appears on score reports during a transition period of roughly two years."
      },
      {
        "question": "What's the difference between the old and new TOEFL score?",
        "answer": "The old system scored each skill out of 30 points, for a total out of 120 calculated as a sum. The new system scores each skill — and the overall score — on a 1-to-6 scale in half-point increments, with the overall score now an average rather than a sum. The new system maps directly onto a CEFR level: a score of 5, for instance, means C1."
      },
      {
        "question": "What TOEFL score do you need for B2 or C1?",
        "answer": "On the new system: a score of 4 or 4.5 corresponds to B2, and a score of 5 or 5.5 corresponds to C1. On the old system (0-120): a total score of 72 corresponds to the B2 threshold, and 95 to the C1 threshold."
      },
      {
        "question": "Does TOEFL cover CEFR levels A1 and A2?",
        "answer": "The new system (from 2026 onward) claims full CEFR coverage, from A1 to C2. The old system (0-120) never published an official threshold for A1 or A2: the 2008 and 2015 ETS research only established cut scores for B1, B2, and C1."
      },
      {
        "question": "Is the CEFR correspondence the same for TOEFL ITP?",
        "answer": "No. TOEFL ITP, the paper-based institutional format, has its own official CEFR correspondence, separate from the TOEFL iBT's, covering levels A2 through C1."
      }
    ]
  },
  "related": {
    "title": "Related",
    "hub": "All framework equivalencies",
    "ielts": "IELTS and CEFR: correspondence and grey areas",
    "clb": "CEFR to CLB: the Canadian framework",
    "methodology": "How CEFRhub assesses your level: our methodology",
    "evaluate": "Assess my level now",
    "frenchSibling": "Lire cette page en français : CECR et TOEFL"
  },
  "sources": {
    "title": "Sources",
    "items": [
      {
        "label": "Manna, V. F., Li, S., Papageorgiou, S., & Gu, L. (October 2025). TOEFL iBT® Technical Manual. ETS Research Report No. RR-25-12 / TOEFL Research Report No. RR-106.",
        "url": "https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1487502.pdf"
      },
      {
        "label": "ETS. TOEFL iBT Score Scale 1 to 6: CEFR & IELTS Comparison.",
        "url": "https://www.ets.org/toefl/institutions/ibt/score-scale-update.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "ETS — TOEFL Score User Help. TOEFL iBT Score Scale Update: What You Need to Know · Frequently Asked Questions: TOEFL Score Scale Change.",
        "url": "https://toeflaccess.ets.org/help/en/articles/11758616-toefl-ibt-score-scale-update-what-you-need-to-know"
      },
      {
        "label": "Tannenbaum, R. J., & Wylie, E. C. (2008). Linking English-Language Test Scores Onto the Common European Framework of Reference: An Application of Standard-Setting Methodology. ETS Research Report RR-08-34.",
        "url": "https://www.ets.org/research/policy_research_reports/publications/report/2008/hspt.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "Papageorgiou, S., Tannenbaum, R. J., Bridgeman, B., & Cho, Y. (August 2015). The Association Between TOEFL iBT® Test Scores and the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) Levels. ETS Research Memorandum RM-15-06.",
        "url": "https://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/RM-15-06.pdf"
      },
      {
        "label": "ETS Global. Mapping of the TOEFL ITP® tests.",
        "url": "https://www.etsglobal.org/fr/en/help-center/score-usage/toefl-itp-test-scores-cefr"
      }
    ]
  }
}