Going from zero to a confident B2 takes an adult 530–750 hours of learning, which is two to three years at two lessons a week. One CEFR level at that pace runs from 4 months at the start to 12 months on the B1 to B2 step. To see your own timeline, use the calculator below by current level, goal and lessons per week.
The timeline is easier to measure in hours than in months: months depend on how often you study, while the volume of material per level is a constant. We take our hours from the Cambridge University Press research paper “How long does it take to learn a foreign language?”, specifically the table for adult learners in a positive learning context. The paper works with guided learning hours: classroom time together with self-study set by your teacher, while series and apps you enjoy on your own sit outside that count and simply speed you up. Levels follow the CEFR scale.
The key finding of the paper: every next level weighs more than the last. Reaching A1 from zero takes 90–100 hours, A2 adds another 100–150, B1 needs 160–240, B2 180–260 and C1 200–300 hours. All in all, the path from zero to B2, which opens up work and study in English, adds up to 530–750 hours. The reason is simple: a hundred new words at A1 visibly widen what you can say, while the same hundred words at C1 barely change anything.
Turning hours into months is easy. One lesson with us is 1.5 hours of class plus about an hour of self-study, so 2.5 hours of learning. Multiply that by your lessons per week and divide the target volume by the weekly pace you get. That is exactly what the calculator above does, showing a range from the brisk to the steady scenario.
The same goal takes different people different amounts of time. Here are the main factors that move the timeline one way or the other
In lessons we see a simple pattern: the fastest learners are not those who cram the most new words at once, but those who come back to the language every week without long pauses. An adult with strong motivation and two lessons a week usually moves through a level in predictable time, while a month of intensity followed by silence sets progress back. That is why the calculator gives a range rather than a single number: it shows the corridor you can realistically land in with honest regularity.
The second factor is your goal. Speaking on everyday topics arrives earlier than fluent business English or a target exam score, because the latter needs accuracy and a wide vocabulary. When you plug in your goal, the estimate gets closer to reality for your own case.
For a sharper estimate, find your starting point first