The AWS Certified AI Practitioner exam (AIF-C01) costs 100 USD per attempt, according to the AWS certification page as of October 7, 2026. A retake costs the same 100 USD under AWS's retake policy. If you already hold another AWS certification, AWS gives you a 50% discount voucher toward another exam, which brings AIF-C01 down to 50 USD.
What the fee covers
The fee pays for one sitting of a 90-minute exam with 65 questions, taken at a Pearson VUE test center or online with a remote proctor. AWS's exam pricing table adds that taxes may apply on top. You can pay with Visa, American Express, Mastercard or JCB, or with a voucher code.
If you pay in euros, Australian dollars, yen, won, yuan or rupees, the same AWS table gives your local price.
Rescheduling and cancelling
You can reschedule or cancel for free until 24 hours before your appointment, and if you cancel before then, AWS refunds what you paid (AWS scheduling policy). Each appointment can be moved twice. For a third change, cancel and book a new appointment.
Inside the last 24 hours you can no longer cancel or reschedule, so if you do not turn up, the fee is gone. The AWS Certification FAQ says a missed exam is not recorded as a fail, and you can register again 24 hours after the missed start time. If illness or an emergency stops you, contact Pearson VUE with documentation. Pearson VUE can then waive the fee and let you reschedule.
What a retake costs
After a fail you wait 14 calendar days before you can sit AIF-C01 again, and AWS sets no limit on the number of attempts (retake policy). At 100 USD an attempt, two fails followed by a pass cost 300 USD in exam fees.
Ways to pay less
The 50% voucher sits in the Benefits section of your AWS Certification Account, and the FAQ says benefits appear within five business days of passing an exam. AWS also says voucher expiry dates cannot be extended (AWS scheduling policy), so check the date before you book or move an appointment.
If you work for an AWS Partner, check the partner section of the AWS Certification FAQ. It says AWS regularly offers discounted vouchers through global certification challenge promotions, and it sends alerts for them through the APN newsletters to subscribers who choose Training and certification in their preferences.
If your employer is paying, it can buy exam vouchers from Pearson VUE or Xvoucher, the two resellers AWS names, and give you a code to enter when you book.
If you are a US veteran covered by a GI Bill education benefit, you can ask Veterans Affairs to reimburse the exam fee (AWS Certification FAQ). You have to buy the exam through your AWS Certification Account to qualify, and AWS training fees are not covered.
Pearson VUE's AIF2CLOUD promotion gave 50% off AIF-C01, plus a free Cloud Practitioner exam after a pass. Its terms covered exams taken from May 26 to September 30, 2026. The page is still online as of October 7, 2026, but a booking made now falls outside those dates.
Paying for practice
AWS's free exam prep on Skill Builder includes a 20-question Official Practice Question Set and a two-hour Exam Prep course. The Official Pretest and the full-length Official Practice Exam need a Skill Builder subscription, at 29 USD a month or 449 USD a year. If the practice exam is the only paid item you want, one month at 29 USD gets you access, which is less than a third of the price of a retake.
Renewal
The certification is valid for three years (AWS certification page). AWS lists three exams that renew it while it is still active, and each one adds three years counted from the day you pass it (AWS recertification). The same page says you can renew using the 50% voucher. Prices are as of October 7, 2026, from AWS's pricing table and each exam's page.
| Renewal exam | Price | With the 50% voucher | Fits when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Latest AWS Certified AI Practitioner | 100 USD | 50 USD | You want to keep this certification and nothing more |
| Latest AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer - Associate | 75 USD for the English beta (MLA-C02) | No beta voucher price published | You are moving into ML engineering and want the Associate certification as well |
| Latest AWS Certified Generative AI Developer - Professional | 300 USD | 150 USD | You build generative AI applications and want the Professional certification as well |
The Machine Learning Engineer Associate exam is changing version. Its exam page says the last day to take the current MLA-C01 in English was September 28, 2026. As of October 7, 2026, the English option is the MLA-C02 beta, at 75 USD for 85 questions in 170 minutes. MLA-C01 stays available at 150 USD in Korean, Japanese and Simplified Chinese until MLA-C02 is generally available. Check that page again before you renew with it.
AWS does not let you sit the same exam again within two years of passing it, unless AWS has replaced it with a version that has a new exam guide and series code (retake policy). While AIF-C01 is still the current version, you can renew by retaking it only in the third year of your certification.
Before you book
Picking a date is easier once you know which AIF-C01 domains would still cost you points. CramHQ's free assessment takes about 15 minutes, needs no credit card, and shows afterwards which areas are your weakest. If you decide you need more practice before you book, the Pass Plan costs 34.99 USD once for 12 months and includes repair tasks ordered by how many exam points each gap costs, five practice tests and a 65-question timed simulation.