Certification Renewal Costs Explained

What staying certified really costs: maintenance fees, CE/CPE/PDU expenses and recert exams across CompTIA, PMI, ISC2, ISACA, AWS and more.

Aisha Rahman22 August 2026 · 7 min read

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Three-year timeline showing annual maintenance fee tags and a single end-of-cycle renewal fee tag

The exam fee you paid to get certified was a one-off. The cost of staying certified is not — and depending on the provider, it arrives as an annual maintenance fee, a per-cycle renewal charge, paid training to earn continuing-education credits, a full-price exam retake, or some combination of all four. Across the major IT and project management bodies, the recurring cash cost of keeping one credential alive typically runs from £0 to a few hundred pounds' equivalent over each three-year cycle — before you count anything you spend on the credits themselves.

This article maps the recurring cost side only: what the maintenance and renewal fees are, what earning CE/CPE/PDU credits can cost, and where a recertification exam is the price of staying current. If you want the underlying deadline structures, see the guide to certification renewal deadlines; for tactics on earning credits efficiently, see how to keep your certifications current.

The three kinds of renewal cost

Renewal spending falls into three buckets, and providers mix them differently:

Maintenance or renewal fees — cash paid to the certification body itself, either annually (ISC2, ISACA) or once per cycle (PMI, CompTIA).
Credit-earning costs — what you spend to accumulate the required continuing-education units. This is the variable bucket: free webinars and volunteering can cover much of it, while paid courses and conferences can dwarf the official fees.
Recertification exam fees — where the provider's renewal path is a new exam (AWS, and Cisco if you renew by testing), you pay exam pricing again, sometimes discounted.

Knowing which buckets your provider uses tells you most of what your budget needs. The conceptual difference between credit-based renewal and exam-based recertification is covered in depth in renewal vs recertification.

What does each major provider charge?

CompTIA: per-cycle CE fees, tiered by certification

CompTIA certifications run on three-year Continuing Education (CE) cycles. If you renew by uploading Continuing Education Units (CEUs), CompTIA charges a CE fee per three-year cycle, not per year — a common point of confusion. As of August 2026, CompTIA's fee page lists a $75-per-cycle tier (including A+ and Data+) and a $150-per-cycle tier (including Network+, Security+, CySA+, PenTest+, Linux+, Cloud+, Server+, Project+ and SecurityX). Fees are paid via CE tokens and are due by your expiration date.

The credit requirements scale with the certification: CompTIA lists 20 CEUs for A+, 30 for Network+, 50 for Security+ and 60 for CySA+ per cycle. Two features soften the cost for multi-cert holders:

Stackable renewal: earning or renewing a higher-level CompTIA certification automatically renews the lower ones beneath it.
Highest-cert fees only: you pay CE fees only for your highest certification, not for each one.

Alternatives to CEU upload — a CertMaster CE course, retaking the newest exam version, or passing a higher cert — each carry their own product or exam price instead.

ISC2: one annual maintenance fee, whatever you hold

ISC2 charges an Annual Maintenance Fee (AMF) of US$135 per year for member certifications such as the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), due on your certification anniversary — and one AMF covers multiple ISC2 certifications. The entry-level Certified in Cybersecurity (CC) carries a lower US$50 annual fee.

The credit load varies by credential per three-year cycle: 120 CPE (Continuing Professional Education) credits for CISSP, 90 for CCSP and CSSLP, 60 for SSCP, 45 for CC. Over three years, a CISSP holder therefore pays US$405 in AMFs plus whatever their CPE activities cost — which can be close to nothing if webinars, ISC2 events and work-based learning cover the credits.

ISACA: annual fee plus a steady CPE drumbeat

ISACA credentials such as the Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) require 120 CPE hours per three-year cycle with a minimum of 20 hours reported every year, plus an annual maintenance fee reported at US$45 for members and US$85 for non-members (verified on ISACA's CISA maintenance page; confirm your own credential's fee at isaca.org). CISA holders have a dedicated walkthrough in the CISA certification renewal guide.

PMI: a per-cycle renewal fee, discounted for members

Project Management Institute (PMI) certifications renew on a three-year Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) cycle. A Project Management Professional (PMP) holder earns 60 Professional Development Units (PDUs) per cycle, then pays a renewal fee of US$60 for PMI members or US$150 for non-members. PMI membership itself runs roughly US$129 a year plus a US$10 joining fee (per 2026 secondary sources — confirm at pmi.org), so the membership-versus-renewal-fee maths only works if you also use member benefits such as free PDU-earning content and event discounts.

Microsoft: the outlier at zero

Microsoft role-based certifications expire after just 12 months — the shortest cycle here — but renewal is a free, unproctored, open-book online assessment on Microsoft Learn, available in the six months before expiration. There is no maintenance fee and no CE programme. Frequent, but free.

AWS and Cisco: pay for an exam, not for credits

AWS certifications last three years and renew only by passing the current version of the exam again (or a qualifying higher-level exam) — there is no continuing-education option. The cost cushion: every AWS exam pass grants a 50% discount voucher usable toward recertification, so a three-year renewal typically costs half the going exam rate.

Cisco certifications also run three-year cycles but give you a choice: retake an exam at full exam pricing, or earn Continuing Education credits (30 CE credits for CCNA, 80 for CCNP level, or exam/CE combinations) through Cisco-approved activities completed before expiry.

Renewal cost comparison at a glance

Provider	Cycle	Fee to the provider	Credits required	Exam option/requirement
CompTIA	3 years	$75 or $150 per cycle (CEU path)	20–60 CEUs by cert	Optional: newest exam version or higher cert
ISC2	3 years	$135/yr AMF ($50 for CC)	45–120 CPEs by cert	No
ISACA	3 years	$45/$85 per year (member/non-member)	120 CPE, min 20/yr	No
PMI	3 years	$60/$150 per cycle (member/non-member)	60 PDUs (PMP)	No
Microsoft	1 year	Free	None	Free online renewal assessment
AWS	3 years	None	None	Required — 50% voucher after a pass
Cisco	3 years	None (CE path)	30–80 CE credits	Optional alternative to CE

All figures as of 2026, USD, and subject to regional variation — treat the provider's own site as the final word before budgeting.

The hidden line item: what CPE credits actually cost

The official fees above are the predictable part. The variable cost is how you earn the credits, and here the same requirement can cost radically different amounts. Free routes exist across all the credit-based programmes: provider webinars, chapter events, volunteering, on-the-job learning categories, and self-study. Paid routes — conference passes, instructor-led courses, subscription learning platforms — buy convenience and bulk credits.

A realistic scenario: a security analyst holding Security+ and CISSP needs 50 CEUs and 120 CPEs over the same three years. Because many activities can legitimately count toward both programmes (each body defines its own eligible-activity rules — check both before double-counting), one well-chosen stream of webinars and training can service both credentials, with the analyst's out-of-pocket recurring spend limited to CompTIA's $150 cycle fee and ISC2's $405 of AMFs. The person who instead buys a course per credential per year spends several times that.

A simple framework for budgeting your renewals

Work through four questions for each credential you hold:

What is the unavoidable cash fee? (AMFs and cycle fees — the table above.)
Can my credits be free? List the provider's no-cost credit categories and estimate what your normal work and free events already cover.
Is an exam ever cheaper? For CompTIA and Cisco, compare the exam price against cycle fees plus your realistic credit costs — for a single lower-tier cert, retesting occasionally wins, especially since a newer exam pass restarts the clock.
Do my certs stack? CompTIA's highest-cert rule and ISC2's single AMF mean a portfolio can cost little more than its most expensive member. Budget per portfolio, not per credential.

Frequently asked questions

Do I pay renewal fees for every certification I hold with the same provider?

Not always. ISC2 members pay one AMF covering their ISC2 certifications, and CompTIA charges CE fees only for your highest certification. ISACA and PMI fee structures apply per credential programme — confirm on your provider's maintenance page.

What happens to the fees if I let the certification lapse?

Missed fees and credits generally suspend or expire the credential rather than triggering a bill. Reinstatement rules and costs vary and were not something we could verify uniformly — see what happens when a certification expires and your provider's policy pages.

Are renewal fees cheaper than the original exam?

Almost always, where a credit path exists. The exception is exam-only programmes like AWS — though the 50% recertification voucher still halves the repeat cost.

Can employer training count toward my credits?

Commonly yes — work-based learning and employer-provided training are eligible categories in most CE/CPE/PDU programmes, subject to each body's caps and documentation rules. That is often the single biggest way to push credit costs toward zero.

Where renewal costs should sit in your planning

Treat renewal as a known subscription, not a surprise: for most three-year-cycle credentials the provider-fee component is tens of pounds a year, and the credit component is whatever you choose to make it. The certifications that genuinely cost money to keep are the exam-renewed ones — and even there, discounts and stacking rules reward planning. If you are still choosing which certification to pursue and want maintenance costs in the comparison, browse the certification exams directory to see what sits adjacent to your current path — and when a renewal exam is on your calendar, a timed run through the relevant practice-test simulation is a low-cost way to check you are ready before paying the fee again.

Exam facts in this guide were checked against official certification-provider pages on 30 August 2026. Fees, exam codes and policies change — confirm on the provider’s own site before you book.