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IELTS band score calculator, with every step shown.

Put in four section scores and see the overall band, or four criterion scores and see the band for that task. Every result shows the sum, the average and the band it lands on, so you can check it against your own report form.

Get a band on a real essayThe calculator runs in your browser. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere.
01 / Overall band

Overall band calculator: four sections in, one number out.

Your overall band is the average of Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking, rounded to the nearest whole or half band. All four count equally. That is worth a moment: half a band in your weakest section is worth as much as half a band in your strongest, and the weakest one is usually easier to improve.

6.5Overall band score

6.5 + 6.5 + 6 + 6.5 = 25.5, divided by 4 = 6.375, which lands on 6.5.

The rounding rule, which is where people go wrong

The rule is one sentence: round the average to the nearest whole or half band, and if it lands exactly halfway between two, round up. Averaging four scores that can each end in .5 makes those halfway cases common, so IELTS names them: an average ending in .25 goes up to the next half band, and one ending in .75 goes up to the next whole band.

So 6.25 is reported as 6.5 and 6.75 is reported as 7. Everything else goes to whichever band is closer: 6.125 down to 6, and 6.625 down to 6.5. The round-up is only for averages that land exactly on .25 or .75, not for everything above them. In practice, a quarter of a band is sometimes worth half a band and sometimes worth nothing, depending on where your average already sits. So put your real numbers in rather than estimating in your head.

02 / One task

Writing band calculator: four criteria, one task at a time.

An examiner awards a whole band for each of the four assessment criteria. IELTS states that the four are weighted equally and that the score on a task is their average. That is why a task score can be a half band even though every criterion score is a whole one.

Task 1 and Task 2 use the same four-criterion arithmetic. Only the first criterion is named differently, because the two tasks ask for different things: Task 1 asks whether you covered what you were given, Task 2 asks whether you answered the question.

Which task
6.5Band for this task

6 + 6 + 7 + 6 = 25, divided by 4 = 6.25, which lands on 6.5.

Why this is not your Writing score

Most band calculators label this output Writing band. It is not, and the difference is worth a lot to anyone whose two tasks went differently. Your Writing section score combines both tasks, and Task 2 counts twice as much as Task 1. IELTS publishes that weighting plainly on both format pages.

One honest caveat. IELTS publishes the .25 and .75 rule for the overall average of the four sections, and nowhere else. The calculator above applies it to the four criteria because that is the standard reading, but it is a convention, not a citation, and we would rather say so than present it as official. Combining your two tasks into a Writing score would need a second unpublished rounding on top of that. That is one guess too many, so the page computes one task and stops.

And the obvious limit: this tells you what a set of criterion scores adds up to. It cannot tell you what your criterion scores are. That takes a marked piece of writing.

03 / Word count

IELTS word counter: nobody publishes how words are counted.

Task 1 asks for at least 150 words and Task 2 for at least 250. Those are official, they are minimums rather than targets, and a response that falls under is penalized for it.

What is not official is how the words get counted. IELTS publishes no word-counting guidance for Writing anywhere: not on the format pages, not in the band descriptors, not in the assessment criteria. The hyphen and contraction rules you have read on study blogs are real rules, but they belong to Listening and Reading, where they set how long a gap-fill answer may be. Nobody wrote them for essays.

So the counter below uses the four conventions candidates are normally taught. They are the strict reading, and if they are off, your real count is higher than the number shown, never lower:

  • A hyphenated compound is one word Well-known counts once. Twenty-one counts once. This is the biggest reason a count that looks safe is not.
  • A number in digits is one word 2,500 counts once. So does 1.5. Neither the comma nor the point separates anything.
  • A contraction is one word Do not counts twice; don't counts once.
  • A compound written with a space is two Bus stop counts twice. That is why the hyphen rule above matters.
Counting against
0words, against a minimum of 250

Paste a response above and it will be counted as you type.

Aim comfortably clear of the minimum rather than at it. Different counters disagree by a few words, and the only count that decides anything is the examiner's.

04 / Raw scores

Raw score conversion: how many correct answers is a band?

Less precisely than the internet suggests. IELTS does not publish a raw-score conversion table. What it publishes is a handful of reference points per skill, described as the average number of marks scored at those bands, with this warning attached: The precise number of marks needed to achieve these band scores will vary slightly from test version to test version.

The forty-row tables you will find on study sites are not copies of any official document. Cambridge practice books do not contain one either. They carry a three-tier readiness chart with no band numbers in it, and its cut points move from test to test inside a single book. So this page shows what can be sourced, and leaves the rest blank rather than filling it in.

The reference points IELTS publishes, as marks out of 40. Source: IELTS, scoring in detail.
BandListeningAcademic ReadingGeneral Training Reading
83535Not published
7303035
6232330
5161523
4Not publishedNot published15

IELTS and IDP IELTS India publish different figures for General Training Reading at band 7: 35 correct answers and 34 respectively. The table above shows the IELTS figure. Treat any General Training Reading estimate near that band with extra caution.

Listening, in more detail

Listening is the one skill with a full published table on an authoritative site. All four IELTS reference points above sit exactly on the lower edge of their rows below. That agreement between two official sources is what makes this table worth printing.

Listening, marks out of 40. Published by IDP IELTS India, Listening band scores, an IELTS co-owner. IELTS itself publishes no full table and says the marks needed vary between versions, so treat this as a practice estimate.
BandCorrect answers
939 to 40
8.537 to 38
835 to 36
7.532 to 34
730 to 31
6.526 to 29
623 to 25
5.518 to 22
516 to 17
4.513 to 15
411 to 12

There is no equivalent Reading table here, in either exam, because every full one we could find was invented. Twenty-seven correct answers in Academic Reading has no published band, so no honest page can give you one. The reference table above will still tell you roughly which side of a band you are on, which is the useful part anyway.

FAQ

Band score questions

How is the IELTS overall band score calculated?
Add your Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking scores, divide by four, and round the result to the nearest whole or half band. That average is the only thing that decides the overall score, so the four sections carry equal weight no matter which one you found hardest.
What happens if my average ends in .25 or .75?
Both round upwards, which is the part most people get wrong. An average ending in .25 goes up to the next half band, and one ending in .75 goes up to the next whole band. So an average of 6.25 is reported as 6.5, and 6.75 is reported as 7. Anything below .25 rounds down instead.
Is the Writing score just the average of the four criteria?
Not quite, and this is where most calculators mislead people. IELTS states that the four criteria are weighted equally and that the score on a task is their average, so four criteria give you the band for one task. The Writing section score then combines both tasks, with Task 2 counting twice as much as Task 1. IELTS does not publish how the quarter steps are rounded inside Writing, so this page computes a task band and stops there rather than inventing the rest.
Does this word counter count the way IELTS counts?
It uses the conventions candidates are normally taught, and it is worth knowing that IELTS publishes no word-counting rules for Writing at all. The hyphenation and contraction rules you have probably read are real, but they govern answer length on Listening and Reading gap-fill questions, not essays. So: a hyphenated compound counts once, a number in digits counts once, a contraction counts once, and a compound written with a space counts twice. That is the conservative reading, which is the safe direction to be wrong in.
Can I raise my overall band by improving just one section?
Often, yes, and the arithmetic tells you which one. Because the overall score is an average that rounds at the quarter, a single half-band gain in your weakest section can be enough to move the whole result. Put your current scores into the calculator, then raise one at a time and watch which change moves the number.
How many correct answers do I need for each band?
There is no official answer, which surprises most people. IELTS does not publish a raw score conversion table. It publishes a few reference points per skill, described as the average marks scored at those bands, and states that the precise number needed varies from one test version to the next. The forty-row tables on study sites are not copies of any official document, and Cambridge practice books contain no conversion table either. This page shows the official reference points, plus one full Listening table published by an IELTS co-owner, and leaves Reading blank rather than inventing it.

IELTS is a registered trademark of the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge University Press & Assessment. VoyaLang is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any of them. The rounding rule and the word-count minimums on this page are the published ones; the conversion tables are indicative and are labeled as such.

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