EF SET Is Free and Tests Speaking: What That Buys You

There is a version of this post that pretends the free competitor does not exist. This is not that version.

EF SET is free, CEFR aligned, and its 90 minute test covers speaking. Here is what that actually settles, and what it does not.

SpeakShark is free too, for the practice rather than the certificate, three AI conversation sessions a day with no card.

In this guide: what it is · the two versions · what free buys · what it does not · the two jobs · using it well · limits · method · FAQ

Key takeaways

EF SET is free, online, from home, on any device.
The 90 minute version covers speaking; the 50 minute version does not.
Results are CEFR aligned with a certificate for a CV or LinkedIn.
It is not on the UK Home Office approved list for immigration.
Measuring your level and proving it are two different jobs.

What EF SET actually offers

EF describes EF SET as the leading English test for free online certification, taken from home, giving an accurate assessment of your English level. It states the test is available on any desktop, tablet or mobile device, that all you need is an internet connection and a quiet place to concentrate, and that it has been developed over a decade with scientists in the field of English assessment.

It also sells to organisations: companies can use the EF SET to measure English skills in the workplace at scale.

The pitch on cost is explicit. Why pay for accurate results, EF asks, arguing there should not be any barriers to testing your English.

That is a strong offer and it deserves to be described accurately rather than dismissed.

Ninety minutes against fifty

Version	Skills	Certificate	Cost
90 minute EF SET	reading, writing, listening and speaking	yes, CEFR aligned	free
50 minute EF SET	reading and listening only	yes, CEFR aligned	free

EF calls the 90 minute test its most complete English test.

The choice between them is time rather than money, which makes the shorter one hard to justify for anyone who cares about spoken English. Fifty minutes that never asks you to speak tells you about comprehension, and comprehension is not the skill most learners are actually worried about.

What a free test genuinely settles

Being honest about a competitor means saying where it is useful, and there is a real answer.

It settles roughly where you are. The most expensive mistake in exam preparation is not failing. It is booking the wrong exam, at the wrong level, on the wrong timeline, because you guessed at your own level. A free CEFR-aligned reading costs an evening.

It costs nothing to be wrong. A paid exam that tells you the same thing costs a fee and a slot. A free one that turns out to be optimistic has cost you an evening.

It gives you something for a CV. A certificate is a certificate, and for an employer with no formal English requirement it is more than nothing.

We say all this because we make the same argument for our own free speaking level check, and it would be dishonest to praise the idea when we do it and dismiss it when EF does.

What it cannot settle

The limits are structural rather than a criticism of the test.

It is not on the lists that matter for gatekeeping. UK immigration accepts five providers, named in the provider split by side of the border, and nothing outside those lists counts. The General Medical Council names IELTS and OET, covered in the GMC requirement for doctors. Ireland's nursing board names IELTS and OET, covered in Irish nursing English. CGFNS, for United States healthcare visa screening, names Cambridge, IELTS, MET, OET, PTE Academic, TOEFL iBT and TOEIC, and refuses at-home versions of any of them outright.

That last detail is the sharpest one. A body can reject a test because it was taken at home, and a test designed to be taken at home cannot answer that objection.

A remote unproctored test cannot make the same claims about identity and conditions as an invigilated one at an approved centre. That is not a flaw in the design; it is the trade the design makes in exchange for costing nothing.

Measuring and proving are different jobs

This is the frame that makes the whole comparison simple.

Job	What you need	Cost
Measuring: where am I now	any reasonable instrument	should be free
Proving: satisfying a body	the specific test on their list	whatever they charge

Nobody should pay to find out roughly where they stand. Everybody has to pay when a government or a regulator is on the other end.

Confusing the two runs in both directions. Some candidates pay for an expensive exam to answer a question a free one would have answered. Others take a free test, see a level they like, and assume it satisfies a requirement that names five providers.

How to use it well

Take the 90 minute version if you care about speaking. The 50 minute one skips it.
Treat the result as a dial reading, not a credential.
Check your target body's accepted list first, before any test, free or paid.
If the gap is large, do not book the paid exam yet. That is the free test doing its job.
If a body refuses at-home tests, no home-taken result helps, however good.

Whatever the reading says, the work between a level and the next one is mostly spoken, because speaking is the skill that does not improve by reading quietly. Role play scenarios and a daily speaking partner are the practical routes, and CEFR levels for speaking explains what the label you were given actually describes.

For what the paid exams ask, IELTS for UKVI by CEFR level gives the band table, Oxford Test of English offers a modular result that never expires, and Linguaskill and Aptis are the closest institutional comparisons. Cambridge speaking criteria by level shows how examiners actually mark speaking, and what C2 actually means sets the top of the scale.

What we could not verify

We did not sit the test. Everything here is from EF's published description of it.

We did not verify the speaking section format. EF states the 90 minute version covers speaking. What the tasks are, how long they run and how they are scored is not something we have read.

We did not verify how the result is produced. Whether speaking is machine scored, human scored or a mix is not stated on the page we read.

We did not check who accepts EF SET. We checked the approved lists we have read, where it does not appear. Individual employers and schools set their own policies.

We are a competitor. We sell speaking practice and we run a free level check of our own, so read our assessment with that in mind and check the source yourself.

This is not advice on which exam to book. It is a comparison of published descriptions, linked below.

How we researched this guide

We read the EF SET site through a browser and pulled the product descriptions, then set them against the approved and accepted lists we had already read from the Home Office, the GMC, NMBI and CGFNS.

We wrote this one deliberately rather than avoiding it. EF SET sits directly on top of our own free level check in what it offers, and a series that has spent weeks insisting on primary sources cannot then quietly skip the competitor that would be inconvenient to describe.

The frame that made it writable is the measuring against proving split. Without it, a free test either looks like a threat or gets dismissed unfairly. With it, the honest answer is that EF SET does the first job well and cannot do the second, and neither can we.

The sharpest limit came from earlier work rather than from EF's page: CGFNS refuses at-home versions of accepted exams outright. A test built to be taken at home cannot answer that, and no amount of assessment quality changes it.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app, and we are not a test. That distinction is the point of this whole guide.

A test tells you where you are. Practice moves you. If a free test has just told you that you are a level below where you need to be, the useful next step is not another test.

You talk, the AI answers what you actually said, and you get speaking feedback while the conversation is still running. The free tier gives basic feedback; the detailed pronunciation and grammar breakdown is on Premium.

Being straight about the limits: a free session runs five minutes with four turns, and we issue no certificates at all. If you need a credential, you need one of the exams your target body names.

Start free with three sessions a day and no card. Paid sessions run ten minutes with unlimited turns. Limits are on the pricing page, and how it works walks through a session. Sign up here if the reading you just got was lower than you hoped.

We are a speaking improvement tool. We are not an exam preparation provider, and we are not affiliated with Cambridge English, the IELTS partners, Pearson or any exam board. For test format, booking and official practice material, go to the exam body directly. Use SpeakShark to make your spoken English stronger, and use official material to learn the test.

Site: speakshark.com
Support: speaksharksupport@gmail.com
Free tier: 3 AI conversation sessions per day, no card

Sources

EF SET: the free positioning, the availability on any desktop, tablet or mobile device, the 90 minute test covering reading, writing, listening and speaking with a CEFR aligned certificate, the 50 minute test covering reading and listening only, and the offer to companies to measure English at scale
GOV.UK, prove your English language abilities with a secure English language test: the five approved providers for UK immigration, used to establish that this test is not among them
CGFNS International, VisaScreen visa credentials assessment: the accepted exam list for United States healthcare visa screening and the statement that at-home versions are not accepted
Council of Europe, CEFR Table 1, common reference levels global scale: the level scale EF SET reports against

FAQ

Is EF SET really free?

Yes. EF states the test is free, taken online from home on any desktop, tablet or mobile device, and that a certificate is issued at no cost. Its own framing is that there should not be any barriers to testing your English, and it positions the test for students, professionals and for companies measuring English at scale.

Does EF SET test speaking?

The 90 minute version does. EF describes it as its most complete English test, covering reading, writing, listening and speaking skills, with results aligned to CEFR levels and a certificate you can add to a CV or LinkedIn profile. The shorter 50 minute version covers reading and listening only.

What is the difference between the 50 and 90 minute EF SET?

Skills covered. The 50 minute test certifies reading and listening. The 90 minute test adds writing and speaking, and EF calls it the most complete of the two. Both are free, both are CEFR aligned and both produce a certificate, so the longer one is a question of time rather than money.

Can I use an EF SET certificate for a visa?

Not for UK immigration. The Home Office approved Secure English Language Test lists name Trinity College London, the IELTS SELT Consortium, LanguageCert, Pearson and PSI Services, and nothing outside those lists satisfies the requirement. Professional regulators publish their own accepted lists, which is where to check for any other purpose.

Is a free test worth taking?

For finding out where you stand, yes, because the cost of being wrong about your own level is measured in wasted exam fees. For proving your level to a body that has published a list of accepted tests, only that list matters. Those are two different jobs and one test can do the first without doing the second.

What should I do with the result?

Treat it as a reading on a dial rather than a credential. If it says you are around B1 and your target is C1, you have learned that a serious amount of work sits between you and a paid exam, which is genuinely useful. If it says you are near your target, book the exam the body actually accepts.