AWS certification cost calculator
Pick the AWS certifications you’re aiming for and see the total exam-fee cost. Toggle AWS’s 50% “next exam” voucher on to see the discounted path, or off for the guaranteed full-price total. Free, no account needed.
AWS’s published fees, USD, before local tax — confirm the exact price and that the 50% voucher benefit still applies in your AWS Certification Account. Assumes a first-time pass on each exam, taken in sequence so each voucher carries to the next.
What AWS certification really costs
Add the AWS certifications you plan to earn and this calculator totals the exam fees. AWS gives you a 50% discount voucher toward your next exam each time you pass one, so you can toggle that on to see the discounted path or off to see the full-price floor. The fees are AWS’s published tiers before local tax; always confirm the exact price — and that the voucher benefit still applies — in your AWS Certification Account, since AWS sets both and they can change by region and over time. The study itself is free here, so the exam fee is the real cost of getting certified.
| Level | Exam fee (approx.) | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Foundational | ~$100 | Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) |
| Associate | ~$150 | Solutions Architect, Developer, CloudOps |
| Professional / Specialty | ~$300 | DevOps Pro, Security Specialty, and more |
How the AWS certification cost adds up
The exam fee is the one cost you cannot avoid — but it is more predictable, and often lower, than the salary-and-course noise around it suggests. Four things decide what you actually pay.
Exam fees are set by level
AWS prices exams by tier, not individually: foundational exams are the cheapest, associate exams sit in the middle, and professional and specialty exams are the most expensive. The exact figures are AWS’s and are quoted before local tax — confirm them in your AWS Certification Account.
Passing usually earns a voucher toward the next exam
AWS’s long-standing benefit is a 50% discount voucher toward your next exam each time you pass one — so on a multi-certification path taken in sequence, only the first exam is full price and later ones can be half. It is AWS’s benefit to change, though, and its own FAQ is not explicit about it, so treat the discounted total as the likely case and the full-price total as the guaranteed one. Confirm the current benefit in your AWS Certification Account.
Retakes cost the full fee again
This calculator assumes you pass first time. A failed attempt means paying the full fee again after a 14-day wait, so the cheapest strategy is also the best-prepared one — book only when your mock scores are consistently comfortable.
Study can cost nothing
The exam fee is the one unavoidable cost. AWS Skill Builder’s free tier and the AWS Free Tier cover learning and hands-on practice, and SaveMyCert’s revision, practice questions and mock exams are free — so the numbers above are close to the real all-in cost.