How much does an AWS certification cost?
Updated
An AWS certification exam costs around US$100 for the foundational level, around US$150 for associate-level exams, and around US$300 for professional and specialty exams, before local tax — at current AWS pricing; always confirm the exact fee in your AWS Certification Account when you book, as prices vary by region and can change. That fee is per attempt: a retake costs the same again, after a 14-day wait. The path gets cheaper as you progress, though — passing any AWS exam earns a 50% discount voucher toward your next one — and the study costs around the fee can legitimately be close to zero, because AWS’s own Skill Builder platform has a large free tier and free exam-prep platforms exist. Here is the full cost picture, including the parts the fee schedule does not show.
The exam fees, tier by tier
AWS prices its exams by certification level, not by individual exam. At current AWS pricing (always confirm the exact figure in your AWS Certification Account — fees are quoted before local tax and can vary by region):
- Foundational — around US$100. This tier includes the Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02), the entry-level exam.
- Associate — around US$150. The role-based tier: Solutions Architect (SAA-C03), Developer (DVA-C02) and CloudOps Engineer (SOA-C03).
- Professional and specialty — around US$300. The advanced tier, typically taken after years of hands-on experience.
Retakes: the cost of booking too early
There is no discount for a second attempt. Failing an exam means paying the full fee again, and AWS enforces a 14-day waiting period before you can rebook — so a premature booking costs you both money and momentum. There is no limit on the number of retakes, but each one is charged at the standard rate.
This is why the cheapest exam strategy is also the best preparation strategy: do not book on calendar optimism. The reliable signal that you are ready is consistently passing full-length, timed mock exams with margin to spare — when your mocks say so, one fee is usually all you pay. The retake fee is best understood as the price of skipping that verification step.
The 50% voucher: certifications get cheaper as you go
Every time you pass an AWS certification exam, AWS issues you a 50% discount voucher toward your next exam. The sequencing benefit is real: a foundational pass halves the cost of your first associate, an associate pass halves the next exam after that, and so on up the path. For anyone planning more than one certification, the effective cost of the later exams is substantially below the list fee.
It also softens the classic “should I skip Cloud Practitioner?” dilemma for beginners — part of the foundational fee comes back as a discount on the associate you were heading toward anyway. Vouchers apply to any AWS exam, including a higher tier, so the discount travels with you regardless of which certification you take next.
The hidden cost is study materials — and it’s optional
For most people the exam fee is not the biggest line in the budget — study materials are, and this is where spending quietly balloons: video courses, practice-question banks, mock-exam subscriptions, sometimes several of each. None of it is inherently bad, but very little of it is mandatory, because the free tier of this ecosystem is unusually strong.
AWS Skill Builder — AWS’s own training platform — includes more than six hundred free courses, comfortably covering the foundational and associate syllabuses. The AWS Free Tier provides the hands-on environment at no cost. And full exam preparation — structured revision, practice questions, full-length mock exams — is available free too; SaveMyCert, where you are reading this, is free precisely because the fee for the exam itself is a real enough barrier without paywalled preparation stacked on top. A sensible default: exhaust the free resources first, and pay only for whatever gap you can then actually name.
Budgeting the whole journey
Two longer-horizon costs are worth knowing before you start. First, AWS certifications are valid for three years; staying certified after that means passing an exam again, at the standard fee — so a certification is better budgeted as a recurring credential than a one-off purchase, though your 50% voucher can offset a renewal like any other exam. Second, plan the sequence before the first booking: the voucher chain rewards it, and choosing exams by role (rather than collecting badges) keeps the total count — and cost — down.
A realistic minimal budget for a beginner reaching associate level therefore looks like: one foundational fee, one associate fee at half price via the voucher, and little or nothing on study materials if you lean on the free resources — plus the discipline of not booking until your mock scores justify it, which is what keeps “one fee per exam” true. Whether that outlay is worth it for your situation is the real question, and it deserves an honest answer rather than a sales pitch — see our guide on whether AWS certifications are worth it.