Big Five personality test: free, 50 questions, instant result

Find out where you stand on the five traits personality researchers use most: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional sensitivity and Openness. Rate 50 short statements, which takes about 10 minutes, and see your five scores straight away for free. Share them with friends and compare, or get the full picture in a detailed report for $5.99, one time.

• Free result
• 50 questions, about 10 minutes
• Public-domain IPIP items
• Your 5 trait scores
• Detailed report $5.99, one time

What are the Big Five personality traits?

The Big Five, also called the five-factor model, describes personality with five broad traits. It grew out of decades of research into the words people use to describe each other, and it is the model of personality most widely used in psychology research today.

Neither end of a trait is good or bad. Each side has its own strengths and its own pitfalls, and many people land in the middle on at least a few traits.

How scoring works

You rate 50 short statements, such as 'Am the life of the party' or 'Worry about things', from Very inaccurate to Very accurate. The statements are the IPIP 50-item Big-Five Factor Markers (Goldberg, 1992), a public-domain set used in personality research. Each trait has 10 statements. Some are worded the other way round ('Am quiet around strangers' counts against Extraversion), which keeps your score fair if you tend to agree with everything.

Your score per trait is where your answers fall on the answer scale: 0% means the lowest possible answer on all 10 statements, 100% the highest. Under 40% is shown as low, 40-60% as middle and over 60% as high.

We are open about one thing: your score is not a percentile. We do not claim you score higher than a certain share of people, because that needs a large, representative comparison group. The percentage simply shows how strongly your own answers lean one way.

What the free result and the $5.99 report contain

Free: your five trait scores, each with a one-line description, ready to share.

Detailed report, $5.99 one time (no subscription):

• For each of the five traits, written for your level (low, middle or high): what it means, 3 strengths, 3 watch-outs, how it tends to show at work and in relationships, and 2 concrete tips
• Combined profiles: what your trait combinations mean together, for example high Conscientiousness with high emotional sensitivity
• Jobs that often suit people whose strongest trait matches yours, as ideas to explore, not predictions
• How personality can change over time, and how to use your result

Not useful to you? You get a full refund within 14 days, no questions asked (one per person).

How the Big Five differ from type-based tests

Type-based personality tests sort you into one of a fixed number of boxes, for example 'introvert' or 'extravert'. That is easy to remember, but most people are not at one extreme. Two people with almost the same answers can end up in different boxes, and if you sit close to a dividing line, a retest can give you a different type.

The Big Five measure each trait on a scale instead, so a middle score stays a middle score and you see how strongly you lean each way. That is a main reason researchers prefer trait scales. The trade-off is that you get five scores rather than a catchy label, and this test explains what those scores mean in plain words.

This test is not a clinical or diagnostic assessment and does not replace advice from a professional. It is research-based on the Big Five model and uses the 50 public-domain IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers (Goldberg, 1992; ipip.ori.org) with the item wording unchanged. Scores show where your answers fall on the answer scale, not how you compare with other people. MyLevel is not affiliated with the IPIP project.

Frequently asked questions

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