Online Portuguese test preparation courses to pass CAPLE or Celpe-Bras

Portuguese has two widely recognised exam systems, one from Portugal and one from Brazil. They differ in design, variant and purpose. A variant is one of the two standards of Portuguese, Brazilian or European.

The CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, describes six levels from A1 to C2. A CAPLE exam is a level exam, so you choose the level before you register and pass or fail at that level. The Celpe-Bras is a score-based exam, so everybody sits the same paper and the score decides the level.

CAPLE also offers school versions of some exams for teenagers. According to CAPLE, institutions in Portugal and abroad recognise its exams for professional, social and educational purposes.

The right exam follows from your goal and from the list of the body that asks for proof.

For ordinary naturalisation in Brazil, the Ministry of Justice accepts the Celpe-Bras as one proof of the ability to communicate in Portuguese. Other accepted proof includes a degree from a Brazilian higher education institution accredited by the Ministry of Education, and a completed Portuguese course for immigrants at such an institution. Applicants from Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique or Portugal, do not need to prove Portuguese.

Each CAPLE test centre sets its own dates and fees. At the University of the Algarve in Faro, the 2026 calendar shows the usual pattern. The CIPLE for A2 runs in February, June and September, and the exams from B1 to C2 run in July and November.

Registration closes weeks before the exam. For the July exams at the Algarve, the window ran from 6 January to 30 June 2026, and for the November exams from 6 July to 7 September. Results followed six to ten weeks after the exam. You register on the CAPLE online platform, and a registration lapses if the fee is not paid within 24 hours.

Because each CAPLE exam tests one level, preparation means training the tasks of exactly that level. Pick the level with a placement test, train listening with recordings of European Portuguese, where unstressed vowels almost disappear, and sit at least two timed mock exams.

The Celpe-Bras tests Portuguese as people use it, by combining skills in each task. Inep, Brazil's education testing institute, runs it twice a year in Brazil and abroad.

1 Written part, three hours

You write four texts. Each task starts from an input, a video, an audio recording or one of two texts, and asks you to use its content in a text of your own for a given situation, reader and purpose.

2 Oral part, 20 minutes

You talk with two examiners about yourself and about topics from short prompts.

The score runs from 0 to 5. Intermediário starts at 2.00, Intermediário Superior at 2.76, Avançado at 3.51 and Avançado Superior at 4.26. The lower result of the two parts counts, so a strong written part cannot make up for a weak oral one.

In Brazil, the fee was capped at 259 reais in 2026, and centres abroad set their own fees.

Online preparation works well for both exam systems, because tasks, recordings and mock exams travel easily. The exam itself takes place in person at a test centre.

If you have already reached the target level, 6 to 12 weeks with a few hours a week are usually enough to learn the format and the timing. If you are one level short of the target, plan a general course first, because an exam course trains tasks and does not build the language.

• An exam course for CAPLE or Celpe-Bras costs roughly 150 to 450 US dollars per course in 2026.
• One-to-one lessons with a teacher from the variant of your exam help most with writing and speaking, where criteria decide the score.
• Timed mock exams show whether you finish every task in the time allowed.