TCF and TEF in the UK: Centres, Versions and Fees
Both the TCF and the TEF can be sat in the UK, but at different centres, because they come from different awarding bodies. The TCF was found at one centre only. The TEF runs at several, not including the London Institut français. This page gives the centres, the versions, the fees and what the papers consist of.
Figures were checked in October 2026 against the awarding bodies and the centres' own published pages. Where a centre's published figures disagree with the awarding body's, that is flagged rather than smoothed over, because it affects what you should expect in the room.
Which is offered where
The split is not intuitive, so it is worth stating before anything else. These are the centres whose own exam pages advertised each test when this page was checked.
The TCF was found at one UK centre: the Institut français du Royaume-Uni in London. Three other centres whose pages were checked, the Institut français d'Écosse in Edinburgh and the Alliance Française centres in Manchester and Leeds, list no TCF at all.
The TEF was found at five: the Alliance Française centres in London, Manchester, Cambridge and Bristol, and the Institut français d'Écosse in Edinburgh. The Institut français du Royaume-Uni in London does not offer it.
Other UK centres run DELF and DALF only. Centre listings change, and a centre that does not advertise a test may still be able to say more than its website does, so ask before you rule anywhere out or travel anywhere.
The TCF: London
The Institut français du Royaume-Uni runs four versions. These fees are the ones its own pages state as applying from 1 July 2026.
| Version | What it is for | Fee from 1 July 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| TCF tout public | General level certification. The centre describes it as the version most French universities require for applications from foreign students. | From £145: £145 for the compulsory papers, plus £85 for speaking and £85 for writing |
| TCF IRN | French nationality and residency applications | £215 |
| TCF Canada | Canadian immigration and citizenship | £260 |
| TCF Québec | Immigration to Québec | From £85, charged per skill |
The version used inside the French university pre-admission procedure is not among them, and it is not the same thing as the tout public. If you are applying to the first year of a French degree, read the page on applying to a French university from the UK before booking anything, because the national rule asks for a version that is not sold here and the way round it is a DELF.
What the TCF tout public consists of
Three compulsory multiple-choice papers, 76 scored questions, one hour 25 minutes in total.
| Paper | Questions or tasks | Time | Compulsory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compréhension orale, listening | 29 questions | 25 min | Yes |
| Maîtrise des structures de la langue, grammar and usage | 18 questions | 15 min | Yes |
| Compréhension écrite, reading | 29 questions | 45 min | Yes |
| Expression écrite, writing | 3 tasks | 60 min | No |
| Expression orale, speaking | 3 tasks | About 12 min, face to face | No |
The middle paper has no equivalent in a DELF exam, and it surprises people: it tests grammar and usage directly rather than through a skill. If you are preparing, it is the paper most likely to be neglected and the quickest to improve.
This structure has been stable for over a decade. The awarding body's candidate handbooks of 2014 and 2022 give the same papers and timings that French university exam centres were publishing in October 2026, so unlike the DELF, whose comprehension papers were reformed, there is no recent change to work around.
The question count discrepancy
If you have read that the TCF tout public has 34, 23 and 34 questions, here is where that comes from.
The computer-delivered version presents 91 items in total. Fifteen of those are experimental, five per paper, and they are not scored. Take them out and you have the 76 scored items above. The experimental items also add roughly ten minutes, so the computer version runs longer than the table shows.
What this means in practice. The London centre's page for the TCF tout public gives 34, 23 and 34, which are the computer version's totals, while also stating that its exam is paper-based. It gives no timings at all, so you cannot work out from that page how long each paper lasts. The timings above come from the awarding body. Ask the centre to confirm which format you will be sitting, since it changes both the item count and the length, and prepare to the awarding body's durations either way.
The TEF: centres and fees
The TEF is run by the CCI Paris Île-de-France and is offered at more UK centres than the TCF. Fees below were on the centres' own pages in October 2026. None of those pages states a date from which its fees apply, so treat them as indicative and confirm when you book. Centres' own product names are used where they differ.
| Centre | Versions advertised | Fees in October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Alliance Française de Londres | TEF, TEFAQ, TEF Canada, TEF IRN | TEF £259 for the four compulsory papers, plus £99 per optional paper. TEFAQ £99 per paper. TEF Canada £396. TEF IRN £259. |
| Alliance Française de Manchester | TEF Canada, TEFAQ, TEF IRN, sold as TEF Nationalité | TEF Canada £396. TEF Nationalité £259. TEFAQ £200 for the compulsory listening and speaking, plus £79 per additional paper. |
| Alliance Française Cambridge | TEF, TEF Canada, TEFAQ, TEF IRN | TEF Canada £396. TEF IRN £259. No fee published for the other two. |
| Alliance Française de Bristol | TEF IRN, TEF Canada | TEF IRN £259. TEF Canada £360. |
| Institut français d'Écosse, Edinburgh | eTEF, eTEF IRN, eTEF Canada | eTEF IRN £189. eTEF £126 for the compulsory papers, plus £63 per option. No fee published for eTEF Canada. |
Two things worth noticing. The TEF Canada is £396 at three centres and £360 at Bristol, so it is worth checking more than one centre rather than assuming a national price. And Edinburgh's £126 compulsory block with £63 options is the lowest entry point of the five, although as with the London Alliance Française the compulsory block is payable whether or not you need the optional papers.
On sessions, the centres work differently. Edinburgh runs on demand rather than to a calendar, with three weeks' notice required and no sessions in July or August. Manchester publishes recurring Thursday session dates. Cambridge runs the written and oral papers on the same day.
What the TEF papers consist of
The TEF is modular, and the configuration depends on which version you sit.
TEF IRN, for nationality and residency
Four papers, all compulsory, one hour 30 minutes in total: reading 30 minutes, listening 20 minutes, writing 30 minutes, speaking 10 minutes. This version was reformed on 1 April 2025, when it was extended to certify up to B2 and gained ten minutes. Each paper now comes in two halves. The writing is a 40-word message to a friend followed by a 100-word persuasive text; the speaking is a phone call to a friend to get information, then helping a friend make a decision; the listening uses more everyday audio such as voicemails and announcements.
Question counts for this version are best confirmed with your centre. The awarding body's own documents do not currently agree with each other on them, which does not affect the timings above.
TEF Canada
Four papers: reading 40 questions in 60 minutes, listening 40 questions in 40 minutes, writing 2 tasks in 60 minutes, speaking 2 tasks in 15 minutes. For Canadian citizenship rather than immigration, only two of those are required, listening and speaking.
TEF Québec, also called TEFAQ
The same four papers and timings as TEF Canada, but listening and speaking are the compulsory ones and the other two are additional. That is why the Manchester fee above is structured around a compulsory pair plus extras.
The general TEF and TEF Études
A general version also exists, configured from one to five papers depending on purpose, with a fifth paper on vocabulary and structures. The version used for applications to French-speaking higher education is called TEF Études. How the general version, the five-paper configuration and TEF Études relate to one another is not set out clearly in the published material, so if you need one of these specifically, confirm with the centre exactly which configuration you are booking.
Paying by paper
Neither test necessarily has to be sat whole, and this is the awarding bodies' own design rather than a centre's packaging.
On the TCF tout public, listening, grammar and reading are compulsory and writing and speaking are genuinely optional extras. If you need to demonstrate a level in all four skills you have to pay for all of them: in London that is £145 plus £85 plus £85, so £315 rather than £145. The headline fee is not the cost of a full certificate, and the London page's labelling of what the £145 covers is ambiguous enough to be worth querying when you book.
On the TEF, the modularity varies by version, as above. Where the compulsory set is only two papers, as on TEFAQ, the saving is real.
Two caveats. The TCF IRN is not modular: it has four papers and you sit all of them. And if you are funding a sitting in France through the French personal training account, the full set of papers is required.
Results, age and format
Results. For the TCF in London, results appear on the awarding body's platform 15 working days after the test. For the TEF, Cambridge quotes one to two weeks.
Validity. Two years for both tests, every version.
Age. The TCF tout public is for candidates of 16 and over, and so is the TCF IRN. The TEF is aimed at candidates of 16 and over. Neither awarding body publishes a clear position on younger candidates for every version, so if a candidate is under 16 this needs asking rather than assuming. For school-age students the DELF Junior route is usually the sensible one.
Format. The TEF is computer-based for the reading, listening and writing papers, with speaking conducted face to face with an examiner. The TCF in London is described by that centre as paper-based.
Before you book, check two things against the body you are applying to. First, which exam it has asked for: the TEF and the TCF are different exams from different institutions, and both are named separately on the French government's lists, so a centre that runs one may not run the other. Second, which papers it needs. Buying the compulsory set when the authority wants evidence of all four skills is an easy and expensive mistake to make.
Sources
- France Éducation international, the awarding body for the TCF. The paper structure, timings and the experimental-item explanation come from its candidate handbook.
- Le français des affaires, CCI Paris Île-de-France, the awarding body for the TEF, for its versions, papers, timings and the April 2025 reform of the IRN.
- Centre pages used for UK fees, versions and sessions: Institut français du Royaume-Uni, Alliance Française de Londres, Alliance Française de Manchester, Alliance Française Cambridge, Alliance Française de Bristol, Institut français d'Écosse.
Related pages: which French exam you actually need, DELF in the UK, applying to a French university from the UK, and the language levels for French citizenship and residency.
Centres, versions and fees change every year, and several of the pages behind this one carried figures that disagreed with the awarding bodies. Last checked October 2026. Confirm with your centre before booking.