What HSK Level Is Considered Fluent?

Q: What HSK level is considered fluent?

Fluency is hard to define, but in general terms, you'll start reaching the early stages of fluency around HSK level 6.

The exact level of HSK you need to be considered fluent in Chinese.

October 21, 2025 Sensoba Team

If you’re like most learners of the Chinese language, your ultimate goal is probably to reach “fluency.”

But what exactly does that mean?

The short answer: You’ll need to reach HSK level 6 before you can even start to consider yourself fluent.

The shorter answer: There’s no such thing as definitely fluent or not fluent.

Confused yet?

In this article we’ll discuss:

What “fluency” really means
How we came up with the HSK 6 rule of thumb
Why the HSK exam is a silly way to measure fluency

Let’s break it down!

Why “Fluency” Is a Tricky Term

Here’s the thing– “fluency” is a pretty vague term. Not only does it mean different things to different people, but it also depends on the context for the same person.

In general, fluency just means you can use a language easily (“fluently”), without having to think much about it. You can understand what people are saying to you, and you can express yourself so that they understand you, too.

Simple, right?

Well, not exactly…

You see, even people in their native languages don’t feel fluent in every situation.

For example, a native English speaker might have no issues texting friends, but struggle to write a professional email to their boss.

So as you can see, it all depends on context.

Pretty much all native speakers will be considered “fluent” in their language, but they still have different levels of proficiency depending on the situation.

Why A Perfect HSK Score Isn’t Enough

Now, let’s get something out of the way: the HSK test is not a good way to measure fluency.

Why?

Because you can pass the HSK test with a perfect score, and still struggle in daily situations.

For example, the HSK doesn’t test your speaking skills. So you can theoretically test perfectly without ever saying a single word in Chinese.

Fundamental Limitations

Tests are, by design, limited in scope.

That’s kinda the point of standardized tests– focus on a few key areas so you can measure them easily.

But real life is a lot more complex than a “few key areas.”

You have to understand slang, pop culture references, nuances in how someone says something to you, and countless other things that would be almost impossible to cover on a test.

Vocabulary Limitations

Of course, vocabulary size is part– if not most– of the problem.

The HSK 6 test requires you to know about 5,000 words.

Studies have shown that around 4,000 word families are required to understand 95% of academic spoken English, and 8,000 word families to understand 98%.¹

If we assume that the Chinese language doesn’t have a drastically different distribution of vocabulary, we can estimate that knowing 5,000 words will get you to around 95-96% comprehension in most situations.

That’s fantastic… But you’ll still have to crack open a dictionary 4-5 times every 100 words you encounter.

That being said, one could argue it’s closing in on “beginner fluency,” of sorts.

How We Calculated That HSK 6 Is the Minimum

The governing body behind the HSK exam, The CLEC (Center for Language Education and Cooperation– formerly known as “Hanban”), originally suggested that reaching the HSK 6 level was equivalent to reaching a C2 level on the CEFR scale.[l6]

The CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) is a widely used scale for measuring language proficiency, ranging from A1 (beginner) to C2 (mastery).²

So, at first glance, it would appear that HSK 6 is, for all intents and purposes, “fluent.”

However, several organizations have disputed this, and offered more realistic equivalences based on experience. (We have a full writeup on the details on our HSK to CEFR calculator page.)

In summary: The HSK 6 level is probably closer to a B2 on the CEFR scale, which is when the student begins to have “a degree of fluency.”

The Gist Of It

So there you have it. Passing the HSK 6 exam isn’t going to make you a master of Mandarin.

However, if you do manage to pass the exam, you’ll have a good foundation in place to start reaching for fluency.

You’ll probably even have some degree of fluency already– just not the all-around proficiency most people think of when talking about the word “fluent.”

Wrapping Up

Thanks for taking the time to nerd out!

If you’re curious about where you are on the CEFR scale, try out our HSK to CEFR calculator.

And of course, if you enjoyed, don’t forget to share this article with your fellow students.

See you next time!

Dang, T. N. Y., & Webb, S. (2014). The lexical profile of academic spoken English. English for Specific Purposes, 33, 66-76. ↩
Council of Europe. (2014). Global scale - Table 1 (CEFR 3.3): Common Reference levels. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR); Council of Europe. ↩