OralPrep vs italki for Speaking Exam Prep: Cost, Pros and Cons

Last updated: 11 September 2026. Prices and features for both services were checked on that date, on italki’s own pages where possible. Disclosure: OralPrep publishes this blog, so we are an interested party. We’ve tried to say plainly where italki is the better choice.

If you want many timed mock orals scored against the official grid, OralPrep is far cheaper per repetition. If you want someone to hear your accent, explain your mistakes and argue with you like a real examiner, an italki tutor is better, and no app does that as well. Most candidates are best served by both: regular simulations to practise the format, plus a few sessions with a tutor near the exam.

The comparison comes up because the usual advice for rehearsing a speaking exam is to book a tutor. HelloFrench’s DELF B1 guide, for example, recommends italki for oral simulation sessions, at “around €15 to €40/hour depending on the teacher.” The advice is sound. The catch is cost: speaking prep needs many repetitions under exam conditions, and paying a tutor for each one adds up quickly.

	OralPrep	italki
What it is	AI oral exam simulator for DELF, TCF and IELTS Speaking	Marketplace for 1-to-1 online lessons with human tutors
Price	First evaluation free; Premium 9.99 € for a pack of 12 evaluations	Each tutor sets a rate; italki quotes $4 to $60 per hour for French tutors
Cost of one mock oral	Under 0.85 € on the Premium pack	One lesson at the tutor’s rate
Availability	Any time, no booking	Book slots in the tutor’s calendar
Who plays the examiner	An AI examiner that speaks and replies in turns	A human, live
Exam timing	Official timing per part, applied every time	Depends on the tutor
Scoring	Every answer scored per criterion against the official rubric	Depends on the tutor’s knowledge of the rubric
Pronunciation feedback	For DELF and TCF, indirect: judged from a transcript of your audio	Direct: a human hears your accent
Teaching and explanations	Written feedback on what to fix; no teacher	A tutor explains, drills and adapts to you
Exams covered	DELF A1–B2, TCF, IELTS Speaking	Any exam a tutor offers, including DALF C1/C2
Official score	No (indicative only)	No

What a mock speaking exam actually costs on each

A speaking exam is short, but a proper mock of it is not:

DELF B2: 30 minutes of preparation, then about 20 minutes of speaking
DELF B1: 10 minutes of preparation, then about 15 minutes of speaking
TCF: three tasks in 12 minutes

Add a few minutes of feedback afterwards and one full mock takes most of a one-hour lesson with a tutor.

On italki, you pay that lesson at the tutor’s rate. italki’s French tutor page puts French tutors at $4 to $60 per hour, depending on the tutor’s experience and the lesson format. HelloFrench’s range for professional teachers is €15 to €40 per hour, with community tutors from around €8 to €10. The cheapest tutors are usually community tutors, who are native or fluent speakers without teaching qualifications. Without teacher training, they are less likely to know an exam rubric in detail.

Following HelloFrench’s own suggestion of two to three sessions in the last three weeks, a candidate with a €25-per-hour tutor spends €50 to €75 on mock orals. That is a sensible final check, but it is only two or three repetitions of the exam.

On OralPrep, your first evaluation is free. After that, the Premium pack is 9.99 € for 12 evaluations. Each evaluation is one scored session, either a full mock exam with every part in sequence or a single part you want to drill, so a full mock costs under 0.85 €. Prices may be lower in some countries.

Where italki is better

A human hears your pronunciation. For DELF and the TCF, OralPrep transcribes your audio and scores the transcript. That works well for vocabulary, grammar, structure and task completion, but it only catches pronunciation indirectly, through what the transcription picks up. A tutor hears the vowel you keep flattening or the liaison you skip. If phonology is your weak criterion, a human ear is worth paying for.

A tutor teaches, not just scores. OralPrep tells you which criterion cost you points and what to fix. A good tutor goes further: explains why your exposé felt thin, gives you three ways to open a DELF B2 problématique, drills the connectors you keep missing, and changes the next lesson around what went wrong in this one.

Real, unpredictable pushback. OralPrep’s examiner is conversational, but it works in turns: you speak, it transcribes, it replies aloud. A human can interrupt you, challenge a weak argument mid-sentence and change direction. For the DELF B2 debate, where you defend your position for 10 to 13 minutes, a tutor who argues back is the closest you can get to the real exam.

Accountability and nerves. A booked lesson with a person waiting for you is harder to skip than an app. And if you freeze when a stranger is listening, practising in front of one is the most direct way to get used to it (more on managing speaking exam anxiety).

Exams OralPrep doesn’t cover. On italki you can find tutors who prepare the DALF C1 and C2, and a few describe themselves as certified DALF examiners. OralPrep covers DELF A1 to B2, the TCF and IELTS Speaking.

A study system around your lessons. italki Plus ($5.99 a month, or $59.99 a year) turns each lesson into summaries, flashcards and practice exercises, and adds AI roleplay based on what you covered. If you already take regular lessons, that keeps the work going between them.

Where OralPrep is better

Many repetitions for little money. Speaking improves with practice: doing the same task type again and again until the structure comes without thinking. At under 0.85 € a mock, you can do a full simulation twice a week for a month and still spend less than a single lesson with most professional teachers.

Exam conditions every time. OralPrep applies the official timing for each part automatically: the preparation clock, the speaking window and, for the TCF, the role reversal in Task 2 where you ask the questions. With a tutor, timing is only as strict as the tutor chooses to make it.

Scoring against the official rubric, consistently. Every answer is scored per criterion against the published grid: task fulfilment, lexique, morphosyntaxe and phonologie for DELF, the linguistic, pragmatic and sociolinguistic criteria for the TCF, the four band descriptors for IELTS. With tutors, this depends on the person: some know the DELF grid in force since 2022 in detail, others teach general conversation, and nothing guarantees that two tutors would score the same answer the same way.

No scheduling. No calendars, time zones or 24-hour cancellation windows. A short gap in your day is enough to drill a single TCF task or one part of the DELF B1.

A transcript to study. After each evaluation you can read back a transcript of what you said, part by part. Seeing your own answer in writing shows up thin arguments and repeated words that are easy to miss while speaking.

What OralPrep can’t do

It isn’t a teacher, and it won’t build a study plan around you.
Pronunciation is judged indirectly for DELF and the TCF, from the transcript.
The exchange is turn-based, with no interruptions.
The score is indicative. It uses the official criteria, but it is not an official result, and like any assessor, human or AI, it can misjudge an answer.
No DALF C1/C2 at the moment.

What to check before paying an italki tutor for exam prep

If you book a tutor, and for the final weeks you probably should, make the sessions count:

Ask about the grid. Ask whether they know the current DELF grid in force since 2022, the TCF correction criteria or the IELTS band descriptors, and ask them to score you against it. When checked, italki showed 125 French tutors under its DELF filter and 88 under TCF. An exam tag on a profile is not proof of rubric knowledge.
Use the trial lessons. italki has no free lessons, but most tutors offer a discounted trial, and you can book up to three, one per tutor. Run a short mock in the trial and see how the tutor scores it.
Bring a target. Instead of booking a general mock exam, tell the tutor what to work on, for example “my debate is weak, argue with me for 15 minutes”. A tutor’s time is best spent on the criterion that costs you the most points.
Professional or community? For exam prep, a professional teacher is usually worth the higher rate. For extra relaxed conversation practice, a community tutor is fine.

How to combine them

For a candidate six weeks away from a DELF or TCF oral, the plan could look like this:

Weeks 1–4: each week, one full timed simulation on OralPrep, then one session drilling only the part where you scored lowest.
Weeks 5–6: two or three italki sessions with a professional tutor who knows the grid. Bring your weakest criterion and, for DELF B2, spend at least one session purely on the debate. Keep one full simulation a week in between.
Final days: one last full simulation in real conditions to rehearse timing, then rest.

That is 11 OralPrep evaluations, which fits in the free one plus a single 9.99 € pack, and two or three targeted sessions with a human.

Try a full mock oral free

Your first evaluation is free: a timed simulation with an AI examiner, scored per criterion against the official DELF, TCF or IELTS rubric.

Start a free simulation

Which one suits you

Choose italki if pronunciation is your main problem, you need someone to teach you rather than test you, you are preparing the DALF C1 or C2, or you need a person on the other side to take practice seriously.

Choose OralPrep if you already have the language and need to master the format, you want many timed repetitions without booking, you want each answer scored against the real criteria, or a tutor for every mock is outside your budget.

Use both if your exam is close and the result matters, for example a TCF Canada score for Express Entry or a DELF B2 for university admission. Use the simulator for most of your practice and the tutor for feedback on what the simulator can’t judge well.

Sources, checked 11 September 2026: italki French tutors (price range, trial lessons), italki DELF tutors and TCF tutors (tutor counts), italki pricing guide, italki Plus, HelloFrench, How to prepare for the DELF B1.

Frequently asked questions

Is OralPrep cheaper than italki for mock speaking exams?

Per mock exam, yes. OralPrep's Premium pack is 9.99 € for 12 evaluations, and the first evaluation is free. On italki you pay each tutor's lesson rate: italki's own French tutor page puts French tutors at $4 to $60 per hour (italki prices in US dollars), and HelloFrench, which recommends italki for DELF oral simulations, estimates around €15 to €40 per hour for professional teachers. The two prices don't buy the same thing, though: a tutor also teaches you.

Can an AI simulator replace an italki tutor for the DELF or TCF oral?

Not completely. An AI simulator is better for repetition: exact exam timing, a score against the official criteria every time, and no booking. A human tutor is better at hearing your pronunciation directly, explaining why an answer fell short, and pushing back unpredictably in a debate. Many candidates use the simulator for regular practice and book a tutor for a few targeted sessions.

How many italki sessions do I need before a speaking exam?

There is no official number. HelloFrench suggests booking two to three italki sessions in the three weeks before the DELF B1 exam to rehearse all three parts of the oral. That is a sensible floor for a final check, but it is too few repetitions to build timing and structure on its own, which is why many candidates add solo or simulated practice in between.

Are italki tutors trained DELF or TCF examiners?

A few say so on their profiles; for most tutors, a profile alone won't tell you. italki lists professional teachers, who have teaching credentials, and community tutors, who are native or fluent speakers without formal teaching qualifications. When this article was checked on 11 September 2026, italki showed 125 French tutors under its DELF filter and 88 under its TCF filter. Ask any tutor directly whether they know the current DELF grid in force since 2022 or the TCF correction criteria before booking.

Does italki offer free trial lessons?

No completely free lessons, but most tutors offer a discounted trial lesson. italki's French tutor page states that each student can book up to three trial lessons, one per tutor, to compare teaching styles.

Does OralPrep give an official score?

No. OralPrep scores your answers against the official published criteria and gives an indicative score, such as a mark out of 25 for DELF, out of 20 for the TCF, or a band for IELTS. It is a preparation tool and does not issue a certificate or an official result. Neither does an italki tutor.