PTE vs IELTS for an Australian visa
The 2025 rewrite changed more than PTE's scores. It moved the accepted-test list too, and the two changes get confused with each other constantly.
What the 2025 rewrite changed
Three things moved at once on 7 August 2025. PTE Academic's Competent English bar became per-skill instead of a flat 50. IELTS stayed exactly where it was, at 6.0 in each skill, so the two tests stopped moving in parallel. And CELPIP, MET and LANGUAGECERT joined the accepted list, while at-home and remote-proctored tests were explicitly rejected.
For anyone choosing between PTE and IELTS for a visa, the practical reading is this: the choice is now genuinely score-dependent, not habitual. Check both tables against your strongest and weakest skill before you commit to either test. And expect to meet both versions of the tables: results from tests taken before the rewrite are assessed under the old ones until 6 August 2028, which is why two conflicting tables can both look official.
The rejection has a trap built in. Some of the accepted tests also sell an at-home or online edition, and booking the home edition because it is cheaper or sooner is exactly the mistake the rules anticipate: for an Australian visa, a remote-proctored result is rejected even when the test itself is on the list. Book the test-centre sitting.
The comparison
PTE's Competent bar, skill by skill
PTE Academic's per-skill Competent English minimums for tests taken on or after 7 August 2025; the other accepted tests' bars are named in the text below.
| English level | Listening | Reading | Writing | Speaking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competent English | 47 | 48 | 51 | 54 |
Competent English: Per-skill minimums for PTE Academic tests taken on or after 7 Aug 2025. Results from tests taken before that date stay under the previous flat-50 table until 6 Aug 2028.
PTE Academic per-skill minimums from the Home Affairs English-language requirements; IELTS's Competent English bar stays 6.0 in each skill. Rules change: confirm both on the official sources before you book.
One row, on purpose. The table shows the only Competent bar this page can pin per skill for PTE Academic. IELTS's row would read flat: 6.0 in each of the four skills, IELTS did not move in the rewrite. That asymmetry is the whole decision: two candidates with mirror-image profiles can now face opposite odds on the two tests.
When IELTS is still the right call: preparation already banked on IELTS materials, or the application is dual-purpose and the institution on the other side lists IELTS, so one preparation covers both. When PTE wins: the fully computer-based format and a Competent bar that now differs skill by skill, which rewards preparing for the exact table above.
For the comparison beyond visa rules, the full PTE vs IELTS guide covers format, scoring and study choice. For a rough translation between the two scales, the score converter gives an approximate concordance: useful for planning, never a legal conversion.
The 57/60/64/70 figure is not PTE's
Since the rewrite, prep blogs have circulated a "57/60/64/70" competent-English table and attributed it to PTE. It is not PTE's. Those figures belong to LANGUAGECERT, one of the tests the rewrite added: the blogs copied the wrong column. Preparing to a bar that does not exist is the expensive way to fail one; you either overshoot by months or book a test convinced you are short when you are not.
The tell: a page that quotes 57/60/64/70 as PTE's competent-English scores copied LANGUAGECERT's column and renamed it.
The reliable move is boring: read the requirement for your visa, matched to the test you actually plan to take, from the official Home Affairs source, and check the score scale for PTE Academic on Pearson's site.
This page is general information about published visa rules, not immigration advice.
The cluster
Read next
Every page in this guide is internally linked, so you can trace the whole picture without going back to a search box.
Answers
Frequently asked questions
No. Those figures are LANGUAGECERT's competent-English minimums; prep blogs copied the wrong column and attributed them to PTE. PTE's per-skill minimums are the ones in the table above, and they are lower than that rumour.
Check if you'd score that today
Sit a free full mock test under the real clock, then check your strongest and weakest skill against the bar before you book either test. The mock test is free forever; AI scoring is the paid part: Pro is $15 once.