Certification Exam Fee Changes: Current, Cited Facts

Last updated 2026-07-14 — the article text's own revision date; dated evidence on this page carries its own check date. See the Citation Ledger at the foot for this page's sources.

Exam fees and version codes are exactly the certification facts that change on the vendor's schedule, and exactly the facts an AI assistant is most likely to get wrong. A model trained before a fee bump or an exam-version swap will confidently quote the old number, and it usually cannot tell you when it last checked. This page is the opposite of that: a dated snapshot of what several widely searched certifications actually cost and which exam version is current right now, with every figure read directly from the official vendor page and cited below. Treat it as a snapshot, not a live feed. Each row carries the date we read it, and a vendor can change any fee or code the day after, so re-check the primary source before you register. Fees shown are the vendor's US list price for a first attempt and exclude training, retakes, taxes, and renewal.

Key takeaways

• Every fee and exam code on this page was read from the official vendor page and is cited with the date it was current; nothing here is estimated or remembered.
• This is a dated snapshot, not a guaranteed live feed; vendors can change a fee or retire an exam code at any time, so re-check the primary source before you register.
• Fees are the vendor's US list price for a single first attempt and exclude training, retakes, taxes, and renewal; CompTIA A+ requires two exams, each voucher listed separately.
• CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) and CySA+ (CS0-004) both list at $439; A+ is now the 220-1201 and 220-1202 core pair; these are the current codes a stale model would likely miss.
• The dates here span 2026-06-08 to 2026-07-14; the CySA+ v4 figure ($439, CS0-004) is the freshest, read 2026-07-14.
• None of these numbers is a prediction of your exam result or earnings; they are published cost and code as of the cited date, and that is all they claim to be.

Why fees and exam codes are the facts to double-check

A certification's purpose and rough subject matter change slowly, so an AI assistant explains them well. The exam code and the registration fee are different: a certifying body can raise a price or retire an exam and ship a successor whenever it likes, and a model trained before that change will still quote the old figure with full confidence. The failure is quiet, the answer is formatted like a fact and reads as authoritative, so there is no visible signal that it is stale. The fix is not to distrust every AI answer; it is to verify the small set of facts that expire against a dated primary source. That is what this page is: the current fee and version for a set of widely searched certifications, each read from the official vendor page and stamped with the date we read it, so you can see how fresh it is and check it yourself.

• Why AI gets fast-moving cert facts wrong
• How we cite every figure

Current exam fees and versions (verified snapshot)

The table below lists the current exam code and US list fee for each certification, with the date we last read it from the vendor's official page. Fees are for a single first attempt and exclude training, retakes, taxes, and renewal; CompTIA A+ requires passing both core exams, and each voucher is listed at the price shown per exam. Full source links, one per vendor page, are in the citations at the end.

Every figure in this table traces to a vendor page cited below; if a cell and a citation ever disagree, the vendor's live page is the authority.

• See every certification with dated fees

What a stale AI answer gets wrong here

Line these current facts up against what an earlier-trained model tends to say and the pattern is clear. CompTIA A+ is now the 220-1201 and 220-1202 core pair, but a model trained on older data tends to name the earlier 220-1101 and 220-1102 exams. CompTIA Network+ is N10-009, not the prior N10-008. CompTIA CySA+ is now on CS0-004 (v4) at $439; the prior CS0-003 has not gone yet — CompTIA's V3 page, read 2026-08-02, says it retires in English on December 22, 2026, with Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish versions on March 23, 2027 — and older answers still name the earlier CS0-002. Fees drift too: a model may quote a Security+ or CySA+ price from a prior cycle rather than the $439 the vendor lists today, or an older CISSP figure below the $749 currently published. A confident one-line AI answer gives you a number with no date and no source, so you cannot tell whether it is this year's fee or a memory from two exam cycles ago. The rows above each carry a date and a citation for exactly that reason: the numbers are checkable, not asserted.

• The 30-second check on any cert fact

How we keep these current

The method is deliberately boring. For each certification we read the fee and exam code from the certifying body's own page, record the exact date we read it, and store the source link so any figure can be traced back to where it came from. We show the US list price for a first attempt and say so, rather than blending in training bundles, retakes, taxes, or renewal costs that would make the number look different from what you pay to register. When a vendor updates a page, the dated citation makes the staleness of an older reading visible instead of hiding it. This is a snapshot on the dates shown, not a promise of a live price feed, and it is not a guarantee that a vendor will hold any fee or code. Its whole value is that every number is real, dated, and linked, so you can confirm it against the primary source in seconds.

• What a certification really costs
• The figures we won't fake

Frequently asked questions

Are these certification fees guaranteed to be current?

No. This is a dated snapshot, not a live feed. Each fee and exam code was read from the official vendor page on the date shown in the table and in the citations, and a vendor can change a price or retire a code at any time. Re-check the primary source, linked below, before you register.

What do these exam fees include?

They are the vendor's US list price for a single first attempt, and they exclude training, retakes, taxes, and renewal. CompTIA A+ is a two-exam certification, so its $274 voucher price is per exam and you need to pass both to earn the credential.

What is the current CompTIA Security+ exam code and fee?

CompTIA Security+ is SY0-701, listed at $439 as of 2026-06-13 on CompTIA's official page. An answer that names the retired SY0-601 is out of date. Confirm the live code and price on CompTIA's page before registering.

Which figure here is the most recently verified?

The CompTIA CySA+ v4 row, CS0-004 at $439, was read on 2026-07-14, the freshest date on this page. The dates across the table span 2026-06-08 to 2026-07-14, and each row carries its own verification date.

Why does an AI give me an old exam code or price?

Because it was trained on data collected up to a cutoff date. When a certifying body raises a fee or retires an exam and ships a successor, a model trained before that change still remembers the old figure and states it confidently, and it usually cannot tell you when its information was last current.

How do I verify one of these numbers myself?

Open the vendor page linked in the citation for that certification and match the exam code and fee against what you see. If the vendor lists a different code or price, the vendor's live page wins and this snapshot is out of date for that row.

Do these prices reflect what I'll actually pay?

They reflect the vendor's published US list price for the exam registration only. Your total can differ with local taxes, currency, training or bundle purchases, retakes, and renewal. Regional pricing also varies, and some vendors display price by proctoring country.

Related, with the cited detail

• Why AI gets fast-moving cert facts wrong
• See every certification with dated fees
• What a certification really costs
• The figures we won't fake
• How we cite every figure