Innerly

Big Five personality test

The Big Five is the personality model with the most research behind it. This version uses the public-domain IPIP items. 50 statements, about 8 minutes, and your result shows up right away.

  • 50 statements
  • About 8 minutes
  • No signup
  • Free
Start the test
  • ExtraversionReserved or Outgoing
  • AgreeablenessDirect or Warm
  • ConscientiousnessFlexible or Organized
  • Emotional stabilitySensitive or Steady
  • OpennessConventional or Curious

The five traits

  • Extraversion

    Reserved or Outgoing

    Where your energy comes from, and how much of it goes outward. High scorers seek out people and stimulation; low scorers are fine on their own and spend less effort being noticed. Neither end is shyness or confidence — a reserved person can be perfectly self-assured.

  • Agreeableness

    Direct or Warm

    How much weight you give to other people's feelings when you decide how to act. The high end is accommodating and trusting; the low end is blunt and skeptical. Low does not mean unkind — it often means honest first and gentle second.

  • Conscientiousness

    Flexible or Organized

    How much you work from plans, order and finished business. The high end is methodical and dependable; the low end is spontaneous and comfortable with loose ends. This is the trait that predicts work and study outcomes most consistently.

  • Emotional stability

    Sensitive or Steady

    How strongly and how quickly your mood responds to what happens. The steady end stays level under pressure; the sensitive end feels things sharply and recovers more slowly. This is ordinary personality variation, not a measure of mental health, and sensitivity comes with real advantages — it tends to go with noticing more.

  • Openness

    Conventional or Curious

    How drawn you are to ideas, novelty and the abstract. The curious end enjoys theory, art and the unfamiliar; the conventional end prefers the concrete and the proven. The conventional end is not a lack of intelligence — it is a preference for what works over what is interesting.

What it measures, and what it doesn't

The Big Five describes personality as five separate traits: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional stability and Openness. This test asks 50 short statements, ten for each trait, and shows where your answers sat between the two ends of each one, on a scale from 0 to 100.

Both ends of every trait have a name, and neither is the better one. Reserved is not the same as shy, and Flexible is not the same as careless. The result describes tendencies from your own answers about yourself.

  • It does not put you in a type. The five positions are the whole result.
  • It does not compare you with other people, so there is no ranking.
  • It is not a clinical assessment, and it says nothing about your mental health.

Where the statements come from

The statements come from the International Personality Item Pool, a public-domain collection of personality items made for research. This is its 50-item Big-Five set, which anyone may use without permission or a fee.

Two statements were reworded because they used the dated phrase "feel blue". Nothing else was changed, and both originals are listed under How this test works.

Getting a fair result

  • Answer for how you generally are now, not how you would like to be.
  • Compare yourself with people you know, as the instructions on the first question say.
  • Use the whole scale. Giving almost every statement the same answer pushes most traits away from the middle, and the result will tell you so.
  • Take a break whenever you like. Your answers are saved in this browser after each one.

How this test works

The questions come from the International Personality Item Pool, a public-domain set of personality items used widely in research. This is the 50-item Big-Five Factor Markers set, ten statements for each of the five traits.

Each trait is scored from the ten statements that belong to it. Some are worded in reverse, so agreeing with everything does not simply push a trait to one end. The balance differs by trait, though: only Extraversion has as many reversed statements as forward ones. For the other four, answering every statement the same way moves the result away from the middle, most of all for Emotional stability. If your answers were nearly all the same, your result says so.

Your result shows where your answers sat between the two ends of each trait. It is not a percentile: we do not yet have enough results to say how you compare with other people, and we would rather show you nothing than make a comparison up.

Two items were reworded. The originals used the phrase 'feel blue', a dated idiom many English speakers do not use. Both originals are listed below. Nothing else was changed, and no items were added or removed.

Reworded items

  • Item 19 reads “Seldom feel down”. The original is “Seldom feel blue”.
  • Item 49 reads “Often feel down”. The original is “Often feel blue”.

Source and license

International Personality Item Pool, 50-item Big-Five Factor Markers

Public domain. The IPIP site states the items may be copied, edited, translated or used for any purpose without permission and without a fee.

Suggested citation: Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4, 26-42.

Questions people ask

How is this different from the 16-type test?

The 16-type test sorts you into one of sixteen four-letter types. This test doesn't use types: it places you on five separate traits, using the personality model with the most research behind it. If you want a type to share, try the 16-type test; for the research model, this is the one.

Why doesn't it compare me with other people?

Comparing you with others needs results from a large group of people, and we don't have them. So the result shows where your answers sat between the two ends of each trait, without ranking you against anyone.

How long does it take?

About eight minutes for 50 statements. Your answers are saved in this browser after each one, so you can stop and pick up where you left off.

Do you store my answers?

Your answers stay in your browser so you can pick up where you left off. They are not sent to us, and there are no accounts. A result link carries your five positions, never your answers.

Is it free?

Yes. The whole test is free and there is no signup.

This test is for self-reflection. It is not a clinical assessment, it says nothing about your mental health, and no trait here is better or worse than its opposite.

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