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Claude certifications: the four Anthropic certification exams, who can take them, and what they cost

The Claude Certification Program has four Anthropic certification exams at two levels. Foundations has three: Associate (CCAO-F), Developer (CCDV-F) and Architect (CCAR-F). Professional has one: Architect Professional (CCAR-P). Each is a proctored exam, and only people at Claude Partner Network companies can register.

By Craig Li, Ph.D

Claude Certified Architect – ProfessionalUpdated

CCAO-FAssociate – Foundations
Claude Certified Associate – Foundations Exam guideFree questions
CCDV-FDeveloper – Foundations
Claude Certified Developer – Foundations Exam guideFree questions
CCAR-FArchitect – Foundations
Claude Certified Architect – Foundations Exam guideFree questions
CCAR-PArchitect – Professional
Claude Certified Architect – Professional Exam guideFree questions

The four Claude certifications at a glance

ExamWho it’s forQuestionsAnthropic fee
CCAO-F Associate – FoundationsKnowledge workers, no coding60$99
CCDV-F Developer – FoundationsEngineers who ship Claude apps53$125
CCAR-F Architect – FoundationsSolution architects building with Claude60$125
CCAR-P Architect – ProfessionalMid- to senior-level architects and engineers63$175

All four: 120 minutes, 720 of 1,000 to pass, valid for 12 months, proctored by Pearson VUE online or at a test centre, in English or Japanese.

As of July 2026, more than 36,000 consultants had received a Claude certification across more than 1,300 organizations, and more than 400,000 people had completed Claude training that year through Anthropic Partner Academy (Claude blog, 23 July 2026).

What changed on 30 June 2026

  • Credential validity

    6 months12 months

    Credentials earned before then were extended automatically.

  • CCAR-F fee

    $99$125

    Anything quoting $99 for the Architect exam is out of date; $99 is now the Associate fee.

  • Delivery and badge

    Pearson VUE + Credly

    Exams moved to Pearson VUE, and passing earns a Credly badge.

What changes on 7 December 2026

  • Updated exam content

    CCAO-F, CCDV-F, CCAR-P

    The Associate, Developer and Architect Professional exams change from 7 December 2026 (Pearson VUE).

  • New exam guides

    17 November 2026

    Domains and weights may change; we will update these pages when the guides are out.

  • Architect – Foundations

    No change announced

    Pearson’s notice covers the other three exams, not this one.

Not an engineer?Claude Certified Associate (CCAO-F): no coding neededCCAO-F guide

Who can take a Claude certification exam

To take a Claude exam, all three must be true
  • Your company is a member of the Claude Partner Network.
  • You have an email on a company domain listed in its partner record. Personal email addresses do not work.
  • You are 18 or older, with a government-issued photo ID.

Without the first two, Anthropic's eligibility page says you can't register; age and ID are checked when you sit the exam. Where you test also matters: IDs issued by Belarus, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, Syria or restricted regions of Ukraine can't be used for online testing, so those candidates go to a test centre, and exams for residents of Iran are suspended from 8 September 2026 (Anthropic's FAQ).

Your company is a partner

Register through the Partner Academy: how to register. A partner company can add a domain to its partner record through partner support, which Anthropic says takes 7 to 10 days.

It isn't

There is no way around the rule. The free Claude Academy courses are open to everyone, and your company can apply to the partner network at claude.com/partners.

Which Claude certification should you take?

Pick by the work you do. None requires another, so you can sit CCAR-P without holding CCAR-F. What Professional adds over Foundations: CCAR-F tests whether you can design a Claude system, and CCAR-P whether you can carry one from discovery to production, with the integration, evaluation and governance that takes.

Associate – Foundations (CCAO-F)

No coding needed: it is the Claude certification for non-technical roles. It suits people who work with Claude every day and set up Claude Projects, in operations, marketing, project management, teaching, communications or other knowledge work.

Anthropic recommends:
Regular hands-on use of Claude at work, and a practical grasp of its limits, such as hallucinations, context limits and data sensitivity.

Is there a Claude Code certification?

No exam has that name. Three of the four name Claude Code in their objectives. It is a whole domain of the Claude Certified Architect – Foundations (CCAR-F), at 20%. It is a 3.1% domain of the Developer exam, and the Architect Professional covers configuring it for teams. The Associate's objectives never mention it, though its skills, such as prompting well and checking Claude's output, apply in any Claude tool. If Claude Code itself is your focus, the Claude Certified Architect exam tests it most.

Three other things get called a Claude Code certification online:

Not a certification

Free course certificates

Claude Code 101 and Claude Code in Action end in a quiz and give a certificate of completion, not a certification.

Not a certification

The Claude Partner Badge

A free badge path of courses and an assessment, for people at partner firms. Not a certification.

Not a certification

Third-party courses

Courses with "certification" in the title. Anthropic does not issue them.

Where Claude Code is tested mostClaude Certified Architect – Foundations (CCAR-F): 20% of the examCCAR-F guide

Free Claude certificates vs Claude certifications

The four exams

Claude certification

  • $99 to $175 per attempt
  • Proctored by Pearson VUE, online or at a test centre
  • Scored from 100 to 1,000, 720 to pass
  • Credly badge, valid for 12 months
  • Claude Partner Network companies only
Claude Academy

Course certificate

  • Free
  • Ends in a quiz, taken online
  • A record that you finished the course
  • Open to anyone

Anthropic itself says the two are easy to mix up. The public Claude Academy (formerly Anthropic Academy) has free courses that end in a quiz; pass it and you get a certificate of completion, a record that you finished the course. So a "Claude 101 certification" or a "Claude Code in Action certification" is a course certificate, not one of the four exams. A Claude certification is one of the four proctored exams above, scored out of 1,000, with a Credly badge valid for 12 months.

Looking for a Claude certification course? These free Claude Academy courses cover the exams' topics:

Partners also get free prep courses for each exam, linked from the Partner Academy certifications page.

How much Claude certifications cost

A Claude certification costs $99 to $175 per attempt at list price, depending on the exam. Select and Preferred partners get 50% off at checkout, Global Premier partners get 100% off until 31 December 2026, and on-time renewal is free.

CCAO-F$99Anthropic fee, per attempt
CCDV-F$125Anthropic fee, per attempt
CCAR-F$125Anthropic fee, per attempt
CCAR-P$175Anthropic fee, per attempt

Retakes, renewal and limits, for all four

RuleWhat it means
RetakeThe full exam fee again. Your partner discount still applies.
Waits after a fail14 days after the 1st, 30 after the 2nd, 90 after the 3rd
Attempt limit4 attempts per exam in a rolling 12 months, counted per exam
RenewalFree if you renew on time, every 12 months. After a major content change, Anthropic can require the full exam instead.
Lapsed credentialSit the full exam again at the full fee

Partner discounts

Your discount depends on your company's tier in the Claude Partner Network:

Registered

Full price

Select and Preferred

50% off

Applied at checkout

Global Premier

100% off

Until 31 December 2026, then 50%

For the firm, the Developer, Architect and Architect Professional exams count toward its Claude Partner Network tier. The Associate exam does not (Anthropic's certifications page).

How to register for a Claude certification exam

  1. Sign in. Open the Anthropic Partner Academy with your partner email and find your exam.

  2. Read the rules. Download the exam guide and read the certification terms and the exam policy.

  3. Pay. Register and pay. Your partner tier discount shows at checkout.

  4. Pearson VUE account. Follow the confirmation email to create a Pearson VUE account.

  5. Book a date. Pick a slot, online with a remote proctor or at a test centre.

Cancel or reschedule at least 48 hours before your appointment, through Pearson VUE. Inside 48 hours you can't change it, and a no-show loses the fee (Anthropic's certification FAQ). On the day, bring a government-issued photo ID whose name matches your registration exactly.

Should you sit one?

If you can, yes. Craig Li passed the Professional exam and explains why Claude certification is worth it.

Free practice for every Claude exam

Exam-style questions for every domain, each with an explanation for every option. Each exam starts free, the first 5 questions with no signup, and the full set adds timed mock exams. Anthropic has no official practice exam: the old one was retired in the move to Pearson VUE, so the sample questions in each exam guide are its only official practice.

CCAO-F practice examClaude Certified Associate – FoundationsStart with 20 free questionsCCDV-F practice examClaude Certified Developer – FoundationsStart with 10 free questionsCCAR-F practice examClaude Certified Architect – FoundationsStart with 20 free questionsCCAR-P practice examClaude Certified Architect – ProfessionalStart with 20 free questions
Prefer paper? Get a free PDF of practice questions

Claude certification FAQ

Which Claude certification should I take first?

The one that matches your work: Associate (CCAO-F) if you use Claude without coding, Developer (CCDV-F) if you build on the API, Architect (CCAR-F) if you design agent systems. None is a prerequisite for another, including Architect Professional (CCAR-P). See how to choose between them.

Are Claude certifications free?

No. The exams cost $99 to $175 per attempt at list price. Select and Preferred partners get 50% off, and Global Premier partners 100% off until 31 December 2026. On-time renewal is free. The Claude Academy courses are free too, but they give a certificate of completion, not a certification.

Can I take a Claude certification if my company is not a partner?

No. Registration is open only to people at Claude Partner Network companies, who sign in with a partner email on their company’s domain. A personal email will not work.

What does CCA-F (or CCAF) mean?

Usually the Claude Certified Architect – Foundations exam: many courses and forums call it CCA-F, while Anthropic’s official code is CCAR-F. A few course sellers use CCA-F for the Associate – Foundations exam instead, whose official code is CCAO-F. See the Claude Certified Architect exam guide.

Is there a free Claude AI certification?

Not a certification. All four Claude certifications are paid, proctored exams, though Global Premier partners take them free until 31 December 2026. The free Claude Academy courses (formerly Anthropic Academy), such as Claude 101, end in a quiz and give a certificate of completion, which is a different thing. See free Claude certificates vs Claude certifications.

Can I take a Claude certification online?

Usually. Every exam is proctored by Pearson VUE, either online with a remote proctor or at a Pearson VUE test centre, and you need to be 18 or older with a government-issued photo ID. Online testing is not open to IDs issued by Belarus, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, Syria or restricted regions of Ukraine; those candidates test at a centre. Exams for residents of Iran are suspended from 8 September 2026.

Is there an Anthropic MCP certification?

No. MCP is tested inside the Architect and Developer exams, and Introduction to Model Context Protocol is a free Academy course with a certificate of completion.

How long is a Claude certification valid?

12 months from the award date, for all four. Renewing on time is free: a non-proctored assessment on the Anthropic Partner Academy. If the credential lapses, you sit the full exam again.

What score do you need to pass a Claude certification?

720 on a scale of 100 to 1,000, on every exam. You are measured against a fixed standard, not against other candidates.

Browse all Claude practice exams

Exam facts from Anthropic's certifications page, certification FAQ and policies, and the four official exam guides, checked October 2026.

Cert Made Easy is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic. Claude and Claude Code are trademarks of Anthropic, PBC. Our practice questions are exam-style questions we write against the official exam guides; they are not questions from the real exam.