Summary Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite that can infect almost all warm‐blooded species and induce a chronic infection in human hosts. The aim of this work was to investigate Th1, Th2, Th17 and Treg polarization, induced by four important T. gondii antigens ( SAG 1, ROP 1, GRA 8 and MAG 1) in acutely and chronically infected patients. For this purpose, SAG 1, ROP 1, GRA 8 and MAG 1 were expressed as recombinant proteins, purified, and used to evaluate the proinflammatory and regulatory immune response profiles in seropositive and seronegative individuals. Our results show that SAG 1 and ROP 1 elicited a proinflammatory profile ( INF ‐γ, IL ‐12 and IL ‐17) in individuals in the acute phase, whereas MAG 1 and GRA 8 induced a regulatory pattern (Treg and TGF ‐β) in chronically infected patients. These results reveal fundamental differences in T‐cell polarization induced by T. gondii antigens, which could have important implications in the immunopathogenesis of the disease and in future proposals of therapeutic strategies.