How Much Do AI Certifications Cost? Every 2026 Exam, Retake and Renewal Price

Most AI certification exams cost $99 to $300 in the US. Entry-level exams from AWS, Microsoft and Google cost $99 to $100, associate exams $125 to $165, and professional exams $200 to $300. Oracle’s OCI AI Foundations is free, and governance credentials from IAPP and ISACA cost $459 to $799.

The exam fee is the number everyone quotes and the smallest part of what you actually pay. The real bill is the fee, plus the retake you might need, plus renewal for as long as you want to keep the certificate valid.

Below: what every major AI exam costs in 2026, the cost by vendor, prices outside the US, the retake and renewal rules that decide the real bill, and seven ways to pay less.

What AI certification exams cost in 2026

List prices in US dollars, before local tax:

• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure AI Foundations: free. No catch: Oracle does not charge for this exam or its training, and its newer Agentic AI Foundations Associate is free too. More in which AI certifications are actually free.
• Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-901): $99. It replaced AI-900, which retired June 30, 2026, and it never expires, which makes it the cheapest certificate to own over time.
• Microsoft AI Business Professional (AB-730), AI Transformation Leader (AB-731) and Copilot and Agent Administration Fundamentals (AB-900): $99 each.
• GitHub Copilot (GH-300): $99.
• Google Cloud Generative AI Leader: $99.
• AWS AI Practitioner (AIF-C01): $100.
• AWS AI Business Strategist (AIB-C01): $50 during the beta, $100 standard.
• NVIDIA NCA Generative AI LLMs and NCA AI Infrastructure and Operations: $125 each. NVIDIA’s other associate exams cost the same.
• AWS Machine Learning Engineer Associate: $150 for MLA-C01, which is now offered only in Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese. English test-takers take the MLA-C02 beta at $75; AWS has not priced the standard MLA-C02 yet.
• Microsoft’s associate and expert AI exams: $165 each. That covers Azure AI Apps and Agents Developer Associate (AI-103), Azure AI Cloud Developer (AI-200), Machine Learning Operations Engineer Associate (AI-300), Cloud and AI Security Engineer (SC-500), AI Agent Builder (AB-620), Multi-Agent AI Solutions Expert (AI-500) and Agentic AI Business Solutions Architect Expert (AB-100). GitHub’s Agentic AI Developer exam (GH-600) is also $165.
• Anthropic’s Claude certifications: $99 to $175, open only to Claude partner organizations.
• Salesforce Agentforce Specialist: $200.
• Google Cloud Professional Machine Learning Engineer and Databricks Generative AI Engineer Associate: $200 each. Google’s new Professional Agentic Architect is also $200 when general availability arrives in mid-November 2026.
• NVIDIA professional certifications: $200 to $500. Generative AI LLMs, Agentic AI, Accelerated Data Science and OpenUSD are $200; AI Infrastructure, AI Networking and AI Rack and Interconnect are $400; AI Operations, which includes hands-on labs, is $500.
• Oracle’s AI professional exams: $245. OCI Enterprise AI Professional, Agentic AI for Oracle AI Database Professional and OCI Data Science Professional are sold through an Oracle Technology Exam Subscription: one attempt within six months.
• Broadcom VCP-VCF Administrator: $250.
• CompTIA SecAI+ (CY0-001): $298, or $332 with Retake Assurance.
• AWS Generative AI Developer Professional (AIP-C01): $300.
• CertNexus Certified Artificial Intelligence Practitioner (AIP-210): $367.50, which includes one free retake.
• ISACA AAIA, AAISM and AAIR: $459 for members, $599 for non-members, plus a one-time $50 application fee.
• CompTIA DataAI (DY0-001): $544, or $709 with Retake Assurance.
• IAPP AIGP: $649 for members, $799 for non-members.
• GIAC’s AI security certifications, such as AI Platform Security (GAIPS): $999 per attempt without training. See AI security certifications for the full field.

Vendors change prices and they vary by country (see prices outside the US), so treat these as the shape of the market rather than a quote, and check the official page before you book. Prices checked against each vendor’s official exam or pricing page on October 8, 2026.

AI certification cost by vendor

If you already know which platform you work on, this is the quicker way to read the market:

AWS AI certification cost

AWS prices by level: $100 for foundational and business exams, $150 for associate and $300 for professional and specialty, plus tax. Pass any AWS exam and you get a 50% discount voucher toward recertification or any other AWS exam, so your second AWS certification costs half. Details: AI Practitioner cost, ML Engineer cost, AIP-C01 cost and every AWS AI certification.

Microsoft and Azure AI certification cost

In the US, Microsoft’s Fundamentals and business exams are $99 and its associate and expert exams are $165, with different prices in other countries. Role-based certifications renew free each year with an online assessment, so a Microsoft role-based certification costs nothing to keep, and verified students get academic pricing in most countries (not India or China). See Azure AI Fundamentals cost, AI-103 cost and every Microsoft AI certification.

Google AI certification cost

Google Cloud charges $99 for the Generative AI Leader and $200 for professional exams such as Professional Machine Learning Engineer, plus tax where it applies. When you certify, Google gives you a 50% discount code for renewal, so renewing the Generative AI Leader or Professional Machine Learning Engineer costs half the original fee. Start with the Generative AI Leader study guide.

NVIDIA AI certification cost

NVIDIA’s associate exams, including Generative AI LLMs (NCA-GENL) and AI Infrastructure and Operations (NCA-AIIO), cost $125 each, and its professional exams $200 to $500. Every NVIDIA certification lasts two years, and the only way to renew is to pay for and pass the exam again, so budget the fee twice over four years. See NCA-GENL cost and NCA-AIIO cost.

Oracle generative AI certification cost

Oracle’s Foundations exams are free, including OCI AI Foundations and the newer Agentic AI Foundations Associate. Its 2026 AI professional exams, such as OCI Enterprise AI Professional (1Z0-1158-26), cost $245 for one attempt. The older OCI 2025 Generative AI Professional (1Z0-1127-25) is missing from Oracle’s 2026 lineup and Oracle hasn’t published an end date, so confirm it’s still offered before you pay for it.

Claude certification cost

$99 to $175, and only Claude Partner Network employees can register. Select and Preferred partners get 50% off, and Global Premier partners pay nothing through December 31, 2026. Every number is in Claude certification cost, and Claude certification vouchers covers how the discounts are applied.

Prices outside the US

Most vendors price in US dollars and add local tax, but AWS and Microsoft publish local prices. A few examples from their official price lists:

AWS also lists prices in Australian dollars (A$150 for foundational exams), Korean won and Chinese yuan, and accepts rupees only for vouchers bought from Pearson’s voucher store. In the UK, Microsoft charges GBP 64 for AI-901 and GBP 106 for AI-103. Microsoft sets the price by the country where you take the exam, so check the exam page with your country selected before you book.

The retake rule is the hidden cost

Nearly every vendor charges full price for a second attempt. AWS makes you wait 14 days and pay the full fee again ($100 for AIF-C01). Microsoft lets you retake after 24 hours, then makes you wait 14 days between later attempts, at full price each time. NVIDIA and Google Cloud make you wait 14 days. Broadcom, seven.

Two exceptions are worth knowing. CertNexus bundles a free retake into the $367.50: its candidate handbook says every exam voucher includes one free retake with no waiting period, used on the same exam version before the voucher expires 18 months after purchase. That is a large part of why the price looks high. Salesforce charges $100 for a retake rather than the full $200.

Here is how the main vendors compare:

So the honest budget for a first-time candidate is the fee plus one retake. For AIF-C01 that is $200, not $100. If you pass first time you are up a hundred dollars, which is a much better feeling than the reverse.

Renewal: the part nobody budgets for

Most of these expire, and how you renew changes the five-year number completely.

• Retake at full price: NVIDIA and Databricks. You pay the exam fee again every two years.
• Retake at half price: AWS and Google Cloud. You pass the current exam again, but AWS lets you use the 50% discount voucher in your AWS Certification Account, and Google gives you a 50% renewal code when you first certify. An AWS AI Practitioner renewal costs $50 with that voucher, or $100 without it, every three years.
• Continuing education plus a fee: CertNexus asks for 90 continuing education credits and a $150 program fee per three-year cycle (its store lists the CAIP CE program at $157.50). CompTIA SecAI+ asks for 15 continuing education units and $75 per three-year cycle.
• Free renewal: Microsoft’s role-based certifications renew with a free online assessment each year, and Anthropic’s on-time Claude renewals are free and non-proctored. Microsoft’s fundamentals certifications, including AI-901, do not expire at all.
• Check with the vendor: Oracle’s OCI certifications last 24 months and Broadcom’s VMware Cloud Foundation certifications three years, but neither vendor’s certification guidelines spell out a renewal method.

Over five years, a $99 Microsoft fundamentals certificate still costs $99. A $100 AWS certificate costs $150 with one half-price renewal, or $200 if you pay full price. A $367.50 CertNexus certificate costs $517.50 if you renew through continuing education. The cheapest exam on the day is not always the cheapest certificate to hold.

The free cost calculator does this arithmetic for any exam we cover: pick the certification, say how many attempts you want to budget for and how long you plan to keep it, and it adds the retakes and the renewal cycles.

7 ways to pay less for an AI certification

1. Start free. Oracle’s Foundations exams cost nothing, training included. See which AI certifications are actually free and what a free certificate of completion is worth next to a proctored exam.
2. Use AWS’s 50% voucher. After you pass any AWS exam, you get a 50% discount voucher toward recertification or any other AWS exam. Take AI Practitioner first and the $300 AIP-C01 costs $150.
3. Take a beta. AWS’s AI Business Strategist beta is $50 instead of $100, and the MLA-C02 beta is $75. Microsoft sometimes posts a limited number of discounted seats for new beta exams on its Skills Hub blog. You can sit a beta only once, and Microsoft releases beta scores only after the exam goes live.
4. Claim student pricing. Microsoft offers academic pricing on its exams in most countries (not India or China) once you mark yourself as a student in your Microsoft Learn profile and verify it.
5. Bundle the retake. CompTIA’s Retake Assurance adds a second SecAI+ attempt for $34 more ($332 instead of $298), and every CertNexus voucher already includes one free retake. Microsoft’s offers page also lists Exam Replay, an exam plus one retake within 12 months sold through Pearson VUE; check that it covers your exam before you count on it.
6. Do the membership math. IAPP members pay $649 for AIGP instead of $799, and membership covers the maintenance fee non-members pay ($250 per term after the first). ISACA members pay $459 instead of $599. Membership has its own cost, so it pays when you’d join anyway or plan more than one exam.
7. Use partner and employer money. At a Claude partner firm of Select tier or above, Claude exams are half price (free for Global Premier partners through 2026). Anywhere else, ask your employer, using the approach below.

What you should not be paying for

Study material is where the money leaks, and it is the one line you control. A $300 video course for a foundational exam is almost never worth it: the vendor’s own exam guide is free, the documentation is free, and our practice questions and study guides are free. If we cover your exam, try ten minutes of our free practice questions before you pay any fee: if the explanations feel new, you need more study time, not a more expensive course.

Two things are worth paying for. A practice bank that explains why each answer is wrong, because that is where the learning happens. And the exam fee itself, booked for a date close enough that you actually revise.

Ask your employer, properly

Most training budgets go unspent because nobody asks in a form that is easy to approve. Send one line with a number in it: the exam, the fee, the retake allowance, the date you would sit it, and what your team gets out of it. A $200 request with a date attached is approved far more often than “can I do some AI training”.

Planning for a whole team instead? See which AI certification your IT team should get first and how to set up a dedicated AI training budget.

If you have not settled on an exam yet, start with the best AI certifications in 2026, then run your shortlist through the cost calculator and compare the five-year numbers rather than the sticker prices.

Related guides

• AI Certification Cost Calculator (Free)
• The Best AI Certifications in 2026, Ranked: Which Should You Get?
• Do AI Certifications Expire? Renewal Rules for 15 AI Certs
• AWS AI Practitioner Exam Cost (AIF-C01): Price, Passing Score, Retakes
• AI Exam Prep