IDP co-owns IELTS, and IELTS by IDP is its official app - free, polished, and unusual in that it spans the entire journey: you can book your test in it, prepare in it, and receive your results in it.
For candidates testing with IDP, installing it is close to mandatory. The real question is how much of your preparation should live there.
Short answer: IELTS by IDP is the best admin companion an IDP candidate can have - free booking, results, official sample tests with auto-marking and AI-enabled feedback, a 7-day challenge and masterclasses, as of 2026.
As a daily training platform it is thin: limited volume, no writing loop, no band tracking. Install it; do not rely on it alone.
Full disclosure: IELTSbiz is our own platform, and we recommend it later in this review as the daily practice layer alongside the official app - weigh that as you read. The review of the app itself is meant to be fair, strengths first.
What the IELTS by IDP app actually does
Three jobs in one free app. Logistics: search test dates and centres, book Academic or General Training (computer or paper), manage your booking, and - the feature candidates love most - get your results on your phone the moment they are released.
The app is also a natural home for booking the One Skill Retake if one section underperforms.
Preparation: free sample Listening and Reading tests that are auto-marked with AI-enabled immediate feedback, a 7-day IELTS Preparation Challenge that structures your first week, an English self-assessment to locate your rough level, quizzes, and a library of articles, videos and podcasts. Registration for IELTS Masterclasses - IDP's free expert-led prep events - lives here too.
Guidance: band-score explainers showing what each skill demands at each level, test-day information and checklists. It is the exam's paperwork, timetable and orientation folded into one interface, and it costs nothing whether or not you ever book.
What does the app cost in 2026?
| Item | Price (as of 2026) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The app itself | Free | iOS and Android; no subscription, no in-app purchases for prep content |
| Sample tests & challenge | Free | Auto-marked Listening and Reading samples, 7-day challenge, quizzes, podcasts |
| Masterclasses | Free | Expert-led prep events, registered through the app |
| The test itself | The IELTS fee | Booked in-app; varies by country - see our fee guide |
There is no premium tier to review: everything in the app is free. IDP's business is the test fee; the app exists to make taking (and retaking) the test with IDP as smooth as possible - a fact that explains both its polish and its limits.
What the app genuinely does well
The logistics layer is best in class. Booking that used to mean wrestling with a regional website happens in a few taps, results arrive as a push notification, and everything about your test lives in one signed-in place.
For the most stressful administrative moments of IELTS - booking and results day - the app removes real friction.
The official samples are authentic in the way only a test owner can offer: real question phrasing, real difficulty, auto-marked with immediate feedback. The 7-day challenge is a genuinely well-designed on-ramp for candidates who do not know where to start - a week of guided daily tasks beats a week of aimless googling.
The masterclasses are underrated free value: live, expert-led sessions on each skill, the sort of teaching that costs money everywhere else, registered in two taps. And the whole experience is ad-free and calm - no upsells, no gamification nagging, just the test owner being helpful.
The honest weaknesses
Volume is the hard ceiling. The sample tests and quizzes are a taster, not a training programme - a serious candidate exhausts the fresh practice material in a week or two.
That is by design: the app orients you and keeps you in the IDP ecosystem; it was never built to be your daily hundred-question grind.
Feedback stops at the answer key. Auto-marking tells you what you got wrong and shows the right answer; it does not diagnose why you specifically keep missing True/False/Not Given, and nothing tracks an estimated band per question type across your attempts. The self-assessment locates your level once; it does not measure your trajectory.
Writing and Speaking are the thinnest sections. There is guidance and there are masterclasses, but no essay-scoring loop and no speaking simulation - the two skills where candidates most need repeated scored feedback are the two the app covers with advice rather than measurement.
Who is the app right for?
Every candidate testing with IDP, without exception - the logistics alone justify the install, and the free samples and masterclasses are real value on top. It particularly suits candidates at the very start (the 7-day challenge and self-assessment) and the very end (booking, test-day info, results) of their journey.
Who needs more: anyone in the long middle, where bands actually move. Weeks of daily scored practice, essay feedback and progress measurement are not in this app - and were never meant to be. Our best IELTS preparation apps roundup maps the app field this one sits in.
How the app fits each stage of your IELTS journey
Day one: install, take the self-assessment, start the 7-day challenge. This is the app at its best - orienting a candidate who does not yet know what the test even looks like, with official materials and zero cost.
The middle months: the app becomes a reference and an events calendar. Masterclass registrations, podcast episodes on the commute, the occasional quiz - useful garnish around a daily practice loop that necessarily lives elsewhere, because the app's fresh material runs out early.
The final month: the app returns to centre stage. Booking when your practice data says you are ready, test-day checklists and centre details in your pocket, and finally the push notification that ends the whole journey.
Used this way - heavily at both ends, lightly in the middle - it earns its place on your home screen for the duration.
IDP app vs British Council IELTS Ready
The two co-owners bundle prep differently. IDP's offer is this app: free to everyone, orientation-strength, spanning booking to results. The British Council's is IELTS Ready Premium: a fuller preparation platform - around 40 mock tests, courses, webinars - but unlocked only by booking with them.
Since the test is identical with either owner, the bundles are a fair tiebreaker where both operate near you: candidates who want a deeper official mock library lean British Council; candidates who value the slickest booking-to-results experience lean IDP. Our IDP vs British Council comparison covers the full decision.
Using the app around results and the One Skill Retake
The app's results moment is also a decision moment.
If three skills hit target and one missed by half a band, the One Skill Retake - resitting just that skill within the eligibility window - is usually cheaper and lower-risk than a full resit, and the app puts the booking a few taps from the disappointing number.
Make the decision with data rather than emotion: if your practice history shows the missed skill consistently at target, the bad day argues for a retake; if practice always sat below target, more preparation argues for patience. Our retake vs full resit guide maps the choice properly.
Verdict: 7.5/10
IELTS by IDP earns a 7.5 out of 10. As the free official companion - booking, orientation, authentic samples, expert masterclasses, results - it is excellent and every IDP candidate should have it.
Points come off for what the middle of preparation needs and the app does not attempt: practice volume, criterion-level writing feedback, and any accumulating measurement of your band. It is a superb front door and back door, with no gym in between.
Pair it with (or replace it with) IELTSbiz
Disclosure repeated: IELTSbiz is our platform. It slots exactly into the gap the official app leaves: the daily, measured training loop between orientation and test day.
On IELTSbiz, reading practice is unlimited: fresh Cambridge-style passages generated for every question type, so volume never runs out the way sample libraries do.
Every wrong answer is explained at trap level - the specific distractor logic that caught you - and your estimated band is tracked per question type, turning weeks of practice into one accumulating diagnosis instead of scattered scores.
The Writing Checker covers the app's thinnest area with a full loop: every practice essay scored against all four official criteria in seconds, with the calibration published - IELTSbiz's study of 1,200 essays found AI band scores matched human examiners within ±0.5 bands in 94.2% of cases.
IELTSbiz is free to start with no card required; Pro is $6.99/month or $29 lifetime (pricing) - a rounding error beside the test fee you are booking through the app.
The clean division of labour: IDP's app for logistics, official samples and masterclasses; IELTSbiz for the daily scored work that decides what your results notification will say.
| IELTS by IDP app | IELTSbiz | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (as of 2026) | Free | Free to start; $6.99/month or $29 lifetime |
| Writing feedback | Guidance and masterclasses, no essay scoring | AI checker, four official criteria, every essay |
| Practice volume | Free samples and quizzes - a taster | Unlimited generated Cambridge-style passages on Pro |
| Band tracking | One-off self-assessment | Per-question-type band tracking, every session |
| Free tier | Everything free | Yes - daily practices and monthly essay checks, no card |
What mistakes do candidates make with the IDP app?
The main one is mistaking the companion for the course. The app orients brilliantly, but its practice material is a taster by design, and candidates who make it their whole preparation discover the ceiling in about two weeks - usually while telling themselves official must mean sufficient.
Booking on hope rather than data is the second. The app makes booking frictionless, which is lovely when you are ready and expensive when you are not. Let a measured practice average at or above target - not a calendar deadline alone - trigger the booking tap.
The third is skipping the masterclasses. Free, expert-led, and two taps to join, they are the single most underused item in the official ecosystem; candidates who would happily pay a tutor for an hour ignore the equivalent hour offered free. Register for one in your weakest skill this week.
How to get the most out of the IDP app
Install it the day you decide on IELTS and run the 7-day challenge as your orientation week. Take the self-assessment and both sample tests early to locate your level, then register for a masterclass in your weakest skill - they are free and genuinely expert.
Then move your daily loop somewhere measured, and come back to the app for what it does best: booking when your practice data says you are ready, test-day logistics, and the results notification.
If one skill falls short, the One Skill Retake booking is right there - our retake guide covers when it is worth it.
For the wider landscape, see our IDP vs British Council comparison and the full best IELTS preparation apps roundup.