Scoring
What PTE Score Do You Need for Australia PR?
The PTE score you need for Australian PR is set per skill, not as an average — and since August 2025 each skill has its own minimum. Here is how it works.
Updated July 20, 2026 · 3 min read
Updated for the 7 August 2025 per-skill rules. If you are planning a skilled visa, the first thing to get right is that there is no single "PTE score for Australia PR." The English requirement is assessed skill by skill, and since August 2025 the four skills no longer share the same number.
English is a points category, not a pass mark
Australian skilled migration works on a points test behind the subclass 189, 190 and 491 visas. English is one category among several — age, skilled employment, qualifications and others all add points too. Your English result places you at one of three levels, and each level is worth a fixed number of points.
The table below shows the current levels, the points each is worth, and the minimum PTE score you need in every one of the four skills to reach it.
| Level | Points | Listening | Reading | Writing | Speaking | IELTS equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Superior English | 20 | 69 | 70 | 85 | 88 | 8 |
| Proficient English | 10 | 58 | 59 | 69 | 76 | 7 |
| Competent English | 0 | 47 | 48 | 51 | 54 | 6 |
The important word there is every. You do not reach a level with an average. You reach it only when all four of your skills independently clear that level's own minimum.
Why your weakest skill decides everything
Because each skill is checked separately, the level you reach is set by your weakest skill relative to its threshold — not by your overall band. A profile that looks strong on paper can still score zero English points if one skill falls short.
Consider an applicant who is near-perfect in Listening, Reading and Writing but sits lower in Speaking. Those three strong skills reach the top level on their own, but if Speaking misses even the lowest threshold, the whole English score collapses to zero. There is no averaging and no compensation: a strong skill cannot lend points to a weak one.
That is why preparation for migration should almost always target your weakest skill first. Polishing a skill that already clears its threshold adds nothing to your points; lifting the skill that is holding you back can move you a whole tier. Work out where you actually stand with the Australia PR points calculator, which checks each of your four scores against its own current minimum rather than averaging them.
What actually changed in August 2025
This is where most of the advice online is now wrong — though not quite in the way it is usually reported. Australia has always assessed the four skills separately; there was never an overall-average provision to abolish. What changed on 7 August 2025 is that the four thresholds stopped being the same number.
Before that date, the well-known figures applied the same minimum to every skill. Superior English meant one number, repeated across all four. Now each skill has its own minimum, and Speaking asks for considerably more than Listening. So the widely repeated "PTE 79 in every skill" is not wrong because averaging ended — it is wrong because a single figure can no longer describe four different requirements.
The exception that still catches people
If you sat PTE Academic before 7 August 2025, the earlier uniform thresholds still apply to that result, provided you lodge your application within the result's validity period. The instrument that introduced the new numbers deliberately preserved the old ones for earlier sittings.
So there are genuinely two tables in play right now, and which one applies to you depends on your test date, not on when you apply. Check the date on your score report before you assume either set of numbers is the one you should be reading.
How to turn this into a study plan
Start from the requirement, not from a round number. Look up the level you need for your visa and occupation, read the per-skill minimums off the table above, and compare them against your most recent practice scores skill by skill. The gap that matters is the largest one — that is the skill setting your level.
Then build margin in. Scores vary between sittings, and several PTE tasks feed more than one skill, so a single weak area can drag down two of your four scores at once. Aiming to clear each threshold comfortably rather than exactly is far cheaper than resitting the whole test.
For the full current numbers by visa subclass and English level, see the Australia requirements page, which lists each threshold and explains how the per-skill rule plays out across the 189, 190 and 491 visas.