IRCC accepts two French tests for permanent residence: TEF Canada and TCF Canada. Both report against the NCLC scale rather than CEFR, and both cost roughly ₹26,000 to sit in India. They are not interchangeable, and picking the wrong one costs points that translate directly into an Express Entry score.
The practical difference is in how each paper is built and scored. Candidates who read quickly and are confident under multiple-choice conditions tend to do better on one; candidates whose spoken French is stronger than their written French tend to do better on the other. Which is which depends on the current format, and the formats are revised — so the honest answer is that this should be decided against your own diagnostic, not against a blog post.
What does not change is the economics. The sitting costs ₹26,000 whichever you choose. Preparation costs a fraction of that. Sitting the wrong test to save a few weeks of preparation is the single most expensive decision in this process.
Before you book anything, take a diagnostic in both formats. We run them, and we will tell you which test suits you even where the answer is that you are not ready for either yet.