Which AWS certification exam should you take first, and how do vouchers work?

What are the AWS certification levels?

There are four, and AWS prices them by level: $100 for a Foundational exam, $150 for an Associate exam and $300 for a Professional or Specialty exam. Specialty is a separate track for one subject, not a step above Professional.

Source: AWS certification pages and exam policy page, checked October 5, 2026.

AWS also lists AI Business Strategist, a Business-type exam in beta. Business exams are priced like Foundational ones, at $100; we could not confirm this exam's code. Several exams on that list change version in late 2026, and the retirements section gives the changes AWS has announced for 2026 and early 2027.

Which AWS certification should you take first?

If you already work in IT, take the Associate exam for the job you want. Take a Foundational exam first only if the cloud is new to you. AWS sets no prerequisites, so no exam has to come before another.

AWS describes its Foundational level as needing no prior experience, and its Associate level as one where prior cloud or IT experience is recommended. Use that description as your test. Someone who has administered servers, written code or run a network can go straight to an Associate exam.

Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) is AWS's entry exam for people new to the cloud: $100, 90 minutes, and no experience required. Our AWS Cloud Practitioner page covers who should take it and who should skip it, with its own job-ad count. AWS lists Solutions Architect, Developer and CloudOps Engineer – Associate as next steps after it. The other Foundational exam, AI Practitioner (AIF-C01), covers AI and machine-learning concepts at the same price.

Which AWS certification is best for a cloud engineer?

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03). AWS asks for at least one year of hands-on experience designing cloud solutions with AWS services, and its exam page lists Solutions Architect – Professional, Security – Specialty and Data Engineer – Associate as next steps.

Of the 7,726 US cloud-engineer ads we counted in October 2026 (Adzuna), 297 contained the phrase aws certified. The phrase covers every AWS credential name, so this figure cannot show which exam those employers meant. Our AWS Solutions Architect page covers the architecture track in detail.

If your work is running systems rather than designing them, CloudOps Engineer – Associate (SOA-C03) fits better. It is SysOps Administrator – Associate under a new name, which took effect on September 30, 2025, and AWS recommends about one year of deploying and operating workloads on AWS. Our page on AWS's operations exam has the detail.

The Professional step changes soon. SAP-C02, the current Solutions Architect – Professional exam, has its last day on November 16, 2026. Its successor, SAP-C03, opens for registration on October 27, 2026, and becomes available on November 17, 2026.

Cloud-engineer ads ask for tools as well as certificates. In October 2026, Terraform appeared in 20% of 7,726 US cloud-engineer ads and Kubernetes in 15% (Adzuna). Our cloud-engineer page shows which certificates and tools cloud-engineer ads name in each country.

Which AWS certification suits DevOps work?

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional (DOP-C02), once you have two or more years of provisioning, operating and managing AWS environments. AWS has no DevOps exam at the Associate level, so take Developer – Associate first if you write code, or CloudOps Engineer – Associate if you run systems.

The DevOps exam has a practical bonus: passing it renews both of those Associate certifications. Developer – Associate is changing version. The last day for DVA-C02 is November 30, 2026, and DVA-C03 opens for registration on October 27 and becomes available on December 1, 2026.

Of the 3,861 US DevOps-engineer ads we counted in October 2026 (Adzuna), 148 contained the phrase aws certified. DevOps work also runs on tools that belong to no cloud vendor, and our pages on the Kubernetes (CKA) and Terraform certifications cover two of them. Our DevOps-engineer page covers what DevOps-engineer ads name in each country.

Show the numbers

AWS in cloud engineer job ads, by country. Share of job ads that name each item. Source: Adzuna job ads, October 2026.

Country	AWS	Ads	Share of ads
United States	AWS297	Ads7,726	Share of ads3.8%
India	AWS29	Ads1,150	Share of ads2.5%
United Kingdom	AWS8	Ads475	Share of ads2%
Germany	AWS10	Ads1,160	Share of ads10 of 1,160
France	AWS2	Ads340	Share of ads2 of 340
Italy	AWS0	Ads121	Share of ads0 of 121
Poland	AWS0	Ads332	Share of ads0 of 332

Which AWS certification suits a data engineer?

AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate (DEA-C01). AWS recommends the equivalent of two to three years of experience in data engineering or data architecture, plus one to two years of hands-on work with AWS.

The exam has been available since March 12, 2024. It arrived as AWS retired Data Analytics – Specialty (last day April 8, 2024) and Database – Specialty (April 29, 2024), so a study list that still recommends either of those is out of date. We do not count the phrase aws certified in data-engineer ads; our data-engineer page covers what those jobs ask for.

Which AWS certification fits an AI engineer?

For engineering work, Machine Learning Engineer – Associate first, then Generative AI Developer – Professional (AIP-C01). AI Practitioner (AIF-C01, $100) is the Foundational option for people who need the concepts, not the engineering.

The Associate exam is between versions. AWS closed the English version of MLA-C01 on September 28, 2026; other languages stay open until January 14, 2027, when the new version, MLA-C02, launches. AWS's September 2026 announcement priced the MLA-C02 beta at $75, with 170 minutes for 85 questions.

Generative AI Developer – Professional costs $300 and lasts 180 minutes. AWS recommends two or more years of building production applications on AWS plus one year of hands-on generative AI work. Machine Learning – Specialty, the older AI credential, retired on March 31, 2026. Our AWS machine learning page covers that track. Our job-ad count does not measure AI credentials.

AWS certification roadmap: which exam first, which next

Start at the Associate level for the job you do or want, and add a Professional or Specialty exam once you have two or more years of AWS work. The table is our reading of AWS's level descriptions and the next-step suggestions on its exam pages, not an official AWS map.

Source: AWS certification pages, checked October 5, 2026.

Before you book, check the live list on AWS's certification page. A course recorded for an older exam version can cover topics the current version has dropped.

Show the numbers

AWS vs Microsoft Azure certifications: share of cloud engineer job ads naming each. Share of job ads that name each item. Source: Adzuna job ads, October 2026.

Country	AWS	Microsoft Azure certifications
United States	AWS3.8%	Microsoft Azure certifications2.3%
United Kingdom	AWS2%	Microsoft Azure certifications4%
India	AWS2.5%	Microsoft Azure certifications1.1%
Germany	AWS10 of 1,160	Microsoft Azure certifications1 of 1,160
France	AWS2 of 340	Microsoft Azure certifications0 of 340
Poland	AWS0 of 332	Microsoft Azure certifications1 of 332
Italy	AWS0 of 121	Microsoft Azure certifications0 of 121

How do you get an AWS certification exam voucher or discount?

Pass one AWS exam first. AWS then gives you a voucher for half the price of any other exam or of a recertification, stored in your AWS Certification Account. The AWS pages we read on October 5, 2026, list no free exam voucher open to the public.

Two posters on r/AWSCertifications asked whether any AWS certification can be earned for free (first thread, second thread). On AWS's own pages, every exam has a price. With the half-price voucher, a $150 Associate exam costs $75 and a $300 Professional exam costs $150. If you take Cloud Practitioner first and use the voucher on Solutions Architect – Associate, the two exams cost $175 in total.

Other routes exist. If an employer or a training program gives you a voucher meant to cover a whole exam, AWS's exam policy says it is valid for the full exam price. Beta exams are discounted: AWS priced the MLA-C02 beta at $75, half the Associate price.

The second of those posters asked whether the free AWS Skill Builder courses are worth finishing without paying for the exam. AWS's free preparation includes official 20-question practice sets, two-hour exam prep courses and the AWS Cloud Quest game. Official Practice Exams and Enhanced Exam Prep sit in a paid Skill Builder subscription that starts at $29 a month. Our reading: the free material is enough to learn the services and to decide whether to book; only the exam gives you a certification an employer can check, with a Credly digital badge.

How much does an AWS certification exam cost?

An exam costs $100 at the Foundational level, $150 at the Associate level and $300 at the Professional or Specialty level, per attempt, according to AWS's exam policy page (checked October 5, 2026). AWS also lists local-currency prices, including euros, on the same page.

If you fail, you wait 14 calendar days before you can retake the exam, and you pay the full fee for each attempt; AWS sets no limit on attempts. You can take every AWS exam at a Pearson VUE test center or online with a remote proctor. If English is not your first language, you can request a 30-minute extension; AWS asks you to do this once, before you register.

AWS reports results as a scaled score. The passing score is 700 for Foundational exams, 720 for Associate exams and 750 for Professional and Specialty exams. A poster described being stunned to see a pass with a score of 788 in the AWS Certification portal; a scaled score of 788 clears the passing line at every level.

Do AWS certifications expire?

Yes, after three years. You renew a certification by passing the current version of its exam or, for several certifications, a higher-level exam, and the half-price voucher works for recertification too.

Source: AWS recertification page, checked October 5, 2026.

A certification you earn from an exam that later retires stays active for its full three years. AWS says so for Advanced Networking – Specialty, whose last exam day is December 31, 2026.

Show the numbers

AWS certification path: requirements, exam, renewal cycle. Source: aws.amazon.com, checked October 3, 2026.

Item
1. Exam
2. Certified	valid for 3 years
3. Renewal	every 3 years

Which AWS exams are retiring or changing?

Four exams change version or retire between September 2026 and January 2027, two more lose some languages, and two earlier changes are listed for reference. Check the exam page before you buy a course or book a date.

Source: AWS exam pages and AWS Training and Certification blog, checked October 5, 2026.

AWS retired three Specialty exams in April 2024: Data Analytics, Database and SAP on AWS. AWS posts these changes on each exam page and on its Training and Certification blog.

Is an AWS certification worth it in 2026?

Worth it when the exam backs up work you can show in an interview. In October 2026, the phrase aws certified appeared in 3.8% of 3,861 US DevOps-engineer ads (Adzuna).

Posters ask this in several forms. One asked whether an AWS certification is worth getting at all. Another asked whether recruiters value knowledge and projects or the official certification. A third asked whether AWS certifications still carry weight with employers in 2026, or whether only hands-on experience counts.

Outside the US, the samples are small, so read each count as weak evidence. In October 2026, the phrase appeared in 19 of 555 UK DevOps-engineer ads and in 8 of 475 UK cloud-engineer ads (Adzuna). In India, it appeared in 51 of 1,549 DevOps-engineer ads and in 29 of 1,150 cloud-engineer ads in the same month.

In Germany, the phrase aws certified appeared in 11 of 1,077 DevOps-engineer ads in October 2026 (Adzuna).

The counts show how employers word their ads. They cannot show how a recruiter weighs a certification on a resume, and they do not separate required from preferred. Our reading: an Associate certification tells an employer you know the AWS services and their vocabulary, and the interview then tests whether you can build and fix things with them.

Do you need hands-on labs or a project before the exam?

A project helps more than the order you do things in. AWS recommends about a year of hands-on AWS work for its Associate exams, and a project is a cheap way to start on that year.

One poster recommended labs or hands-on time with the services in a free account. In r/devops, another asked whether to do the Cloud Resume Challenge before the AWS exam. We have not reviewed that challenge, so we do not rate it. Since AWS sets no prerequisites, the order is up to you; our reading is that one small project you can explain line by line, built while you study, does more for an interview than a second exam.

AWS, Azure or Google Cloud?

Choose the cloud that the companies you apply to already run. Our counts use a different phrase for each vendor, so they cannot rank the three clouds. Our Azure certification page and Google Cloud certification page cover the other two vendors, and the AWS vs Google Cloud comparison sets two of them side by side. The cloud and DevOps field page gathers every cloud credential we cover.

Sources

• Adzuna job-ad counts for the phrase aws certified in cloud-engineer and DevOps-engineer ads, and for Terraform and Kubernetes in cloud-engineer ads, October 2026; analysis: CertWorthIt. How we count.
• AWS certification pages, checked October 5, 2026:
  • AWS Certification overview
  • Exam policies before testing (prices, vouchers, validity, delivery, extra time)
  • Exam policies after testing (scores, retakes)
  • Recertification
  • Certification benefits
  • Certification prep
  • Coming soon
• AWS exam pages, checked October 5, 2026:
  • Cloud Practitioner and AI Practitioner
  • Solutions Architect – Associate and Solutions Architect – Professional
  • Developer – Associate and DevOps Engineer – Professional
  • Data Engineer – Associate
  • Generative AI Developer – Professional
  • Security – Specialty, Advanced Networking – Specialty and Machine Learning – Specialty
• AWS Training and Certification blog: September 2026 new offerings and certification retirements and launches.
• Reddit threads linked in the text, from the posts we collected.

Edited by Elena Marsh · Data checked October 5, 2026