Best Spelling Apps for IELTS and TOEFL Preparation in 2026

You have practiced listening until you can follow a lecture at full speed. You have learned to plan an essay in five minutes. Then a practice paper comes back with "accomodation" marked wrong in Listening, or a writing score that mentions "lexical errors", and you realize that spelling, the skill you assumed was finished years ago, is quietly costing you marks.

Most exam-preparation apps are built to teach the exam: question types, timing, strategy. Very few are built to fix spelling, and most general spelling apps were designed for schoolchildren. This guide compares the tools that actually help an IELTS or TOEFL candidate spell better, what each costs as of October 2026, and where each one falls short. Prices were checked on each provider's own site or app store listing in late September and early October 2026.

One disclosure. We make one of the tools below. It is listed as one option among several, with its limits, and for some candidates something else on this list will suit better.

Why spelling matters more in these exams than people expect

In IELTS Listening, an answer must be spelled correctly to score. "Accomodation" earns exactly what an empty box earns. There is no partial credit, and with 40 questions converted into a band, two or three misspellings can move you half a band. IELTS accepts both British and American spelling, so "color" and "colour" are both fine, as long as you are consistent. Our guide to IELTS Listening spelling covers the marking in detail.

In IELTS Writing, spelling is part of the Lexical Resource score. Examiners do not count errors and subtract points; they judge how often errors appear and whether they get in the way of meaning.

The TOEFL iBT changed in January 2026. Its writing tasks are typed in a box with no spell-checker and no autocorrect, and the official scoring guide says a top response can contain only the kind of slips a competent writer makes under time pressure. The redesigned Reading section also has a task, Complete the Words, in which you complete partly missing words in a short text. There, spelling is the whole task. Our piece on TOEFL writing and spelling explains the rubric.

So the skill you need is specific. You must hear or think of a word and produce every letter, quickly, with no software to catch you.

The short version

Official practice: the place to find your mistakes

The test owners give away more than many candidates realize. IDP's IELTS site offers free practice tests by skill, and ETS offers a free official TOEFL iBT sample test along with TestReady, its preparation portal of practice tests, courses and guides. Cambridge University Press publishes the long-running Cambridge IELTS series of authentic practice papers, with recordings, transcripts and answer keys.

None of these will teach you to spell. What they do, better than anything else, is show you which words go wrong under exam conditions. Every Listening answer you misspell, every word you hesitate over in a timed essay, is a word for your personal list. The transcripts are especially valuable, because they let you turn any Listening section into a dictation exercise.

Official recordings have one more advantage that no spelling app can match: the accents. IELTS Listening uses a range of English accents, including British and Australian, and a word you can spell perfectly when you hear it in one accent may sound unfamiliar in another. Practicing dictation with the real recordings trains your ear and your spelling together. Use a spelling app to make the words secure, and the official recordings to make sure you can still catch them at exam speed.

Our entry: dictation with the schedule built in

A recorded American English voice says a word, you type it and press Enter, and the app shows exactly which letters went wrong and why, with the word's meaning and an example sentence. FSRS, an open-source spaced-repetition algorithm, then schedules each word for review at growing intervals. That is, almost exactly, the IELTS Listening task: hear a word, write it correctly, with nothing to copy from.

There are ten levels and almost 14,000 words with audio, plus topic lists and career vocabulary. A short adaptive warm-up finds your level. If you keep missing the same pattern, such as double letters or the -tion and -sion endings, extra words with that pattern appear until you get it. British spellings are accepted as correct, which matters for IELTS candidates who write "organise" and "centre".

The limits are real. The voice is American, so you will not hear British accents, which IELTS Listening uses heavily. It does not teach grammar or exam strategy. The free plan, after the first 14 days, adds only three new words a day, which is slow if your exam is close. Pro removes that cap.

Anki and Quizlet: your own word lists

Anki is free, open-source flashcard software with excellent spaced repetition, free on computers and Android and $24.99 once on iPhone. For exam spelling, its strength is control. You can build cards for exactly the words you missed in practice tests, add audio, and type each answer, which Anki then checks letter by letter. The cost is setup time, and you will spend an evening learning how card templates work.

Quizlet offers free flashcards with paid premium tools in Quizlet Plus. Its attraction is the enormous library of shared sets, including many IELTS and TOEFL vocabulary lists made by other learners and teachers. Treat those with care. Shared sets are only as accurate as the person who made them, and a misspelled card teaches the misspelling. Making your own small set from your own mistakes is slower and much more useful.

Spellzone and Vocabulary.com: rules and academic vocabulary

Spellzone is a UK-built online course that starts with a Spelling Ability Test, then works through the rules of English spelling in 36 units for ages nine to adult. It covers both British and American spelling and can translate its word lists into 92 languages, which helps learners who want a meaning check in their first language. A year for one learner is $39, after a 7-day trial. It suits a candidate with months to prepare who wants to understand why words are spelled as they are.

Vocabulary.com is a vocabulary trainer with large academic and test-preparation word lists and a Spelling Bee activity: you read the definition, hear the word and type it. A free account allows 10 trainer questions a day. Its spelling is American, which is fine for TOEFL and acceptable for IELTS, but it is built mainly to teach meaning, so spelling practice is a side benefit.

Grammarly and Duolingo: useful, but not for this job

Grammarly can check your practice essays and set British or American English. Its free plan flags spelling errors, and Pro is listed at $12 a month billed yearly. Use it after you write, never during, and copy every flagged word onto your study list. It cannot be used in either exam, and relying on it while practicing trains exactly the habit the exam punishes.

Duolingo is a general language course, not exam preparation for IELTS or TOEFL. Its own exam, the Duolingo English Test, is a separate product. Listening exercises where you type what you hear are decent spelling practice for beginners, but it does not track the specific words you misspell. If you are weighing the Duolingo English Test as an alternative exam, see our guide to Duolingo English Test spelling.

How to choose

If your exam is more than two months away and you like structure, a rules course such as Spellzone plus regular dictation is a strong pairing. If you have a few weeks and a list of known problem words, a spaced-repetition tool will get those words secure fastest, whether that is Anki, which you build yourself, or an app that runs the schedule for you. In every case, the official practice materials are where your list comes from.

Two warnings apply whatever you choose. First, choose British or American spelling and stay with it; mixing "color" and "colour" in one essay looks careless even though both are accepted. Second, do not practice with autocorrect switched on. Every correction it makes silently is a word you did not have to recall.

A two-week method for exam spelling

The research behind this is solid. Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke showed in 2006 that recalling information strengthens memory far more than rereading it, and a 2022 meta-analysis by Su Kyung Kim and Stuart Webb found that spaced practice helps second-language learners in particular.

1. Take a Listening section you have already done and replay it as dictation, writing every answer and checking it against the transcript.
2. Add every misspelled word to a personal list, along with any word you hesitated over in a timed essay.
3. Each day for a few minutes, hear each word, from an app or a recording you make yourself, and type or write it from memory.
4. Check at once, and say the tricky part aloud: "accoMModation", "enviRONment".
5. Words you miss come back tomorrow. Words you get right come back in three days, then a week.
6. On the last day, rewrite one practice essay with no checker, and look only at spelling.

Our article on the hidden reason IELTS candidates lose a whole band lists the words that most often go wrong.

What to do next

Tonight, take one Listening section with a transcript, play it as dictation, and write down every word you misspell. That list is your study plan. Choose one tool from the table to drill it for a few minutes a day until your exam, and check the list again a week before the test.

If you want listen-and-type practice with the spacing handled for you, Spelling.School lets you try five words on the home page with no sign-up, and the pricing page shows what the free plan includes.

Questions people ask

What is the best app for IELTS spelling practice?

The best practice for IELTS spelling is hearing a word and writing it from memory, then reviewing missed words over several days. Apps that combine dictation with spaced review do this most directly, and Anki can be set up to do it for free with your own word list. Whichever app you use, build your list from the words you misspell in official practice tests.

Does IELTS accept American spelling?

Yes. IELTS accepts both British and American spelling in Listening, Reading and Writing. What matters is that each word is spelled correctly and that you stay consistent, rather than mixing systems such as "color" and "colour" in the same essay. Choose one system before you start practicing and use it every time.

Is there a spell-checker in the TOEFL?

No. The TOEFL iBT writing tasks are typed in a box with no spell-checker, grammar checker or autocorrect, so what you type is exactly what the rater reads. The official scoring guides allow for occasional typos at the highest score, but frequent misspellings lower your score. Practice typing answers with autocorrect switched off.

Can I use Grammarly to prepare for IELTS or TOEFL?

You can use Grammarly to check practice essays after you write them, and it can be set to British or American English. It cannot be used during either exam, and relying on it while you write trains a habit the exam will punish. The most useful approach is to note every word it flags and practice those words from memory.

How many words should I practice a day for IELTS spelling?

Five to ten new words a day, plus a review of earlier words, is a sustainable pace for most candidates. Spaced review matters more than volume: a word recalled correctly on three separate days is far more secure than one practiced twenty times in one evening. Start with the words you have actually misspelled in practice tests.

Is Duolingo good preparation for IELTS?

Duolingo can help beginners build general English, and its listening exercises give some spelling practice. It is not designed as preparation for IELTS, does not use IELTS question types, and does not track the individual words you misspell. Candidates aiming for a specific band usually need official practice materials and targeted spelling and vocabulary work as well.

Fix the words you actually get wrong

A few minutes a day, spaced repetition, built only for spelling. Try five words without signing up.