Where can I take IELTS in the UK?

IELTS for UKVI (GBP 257) is sold at 18 dedicated venues on ielts.org: London (5), Manchester (2), and one each in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Newcastle (Gateshead), Nottingham and Portsmouth. IELTS Life Skills (GBP 182) runs at 15 of them; the London City (Tobacco Dock), Glasgow and Manchester Murray House venues are UKVI-only.

What counts for the Home Office is its own list of approved test centres in the UK, dated 2 October 2026 and linked from the gov.uk SELT page. It names 17 IELTS SELT Consortium venues in 11 cities: Belfast, Birmingham (2), Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London (5), Manchester (2), Newcastle and Portsmouth. Bristol and Nottingham appear on ielts.org but not on that list, so if you are applying for a visa, check the latest Home Office list before you book there.

For standard IELTS, the fee changes with the venue, so it can pay to look one city over: in the Midlands, Leicester (GBP 220) is GBP 40 cheaper than Birmingham or Coventry (GBP 260); near London, Reading is GBP 235. For UKVI and Life Skills, the price is the same everywhere, so choose the nearest approved venue.

For the visa tests bring a passport or your eVisa share code; the Home Office rules are in our IELTS fee in the UK guide. If PTE is an option for your route, Pearson has 22 SELT-approved centres, including Leicester, Sheffield, Oxford and Wolverhampton, where IELTS for UKVI is not offered (PTE centres in the UK).