Before you book
Claude Certified Architect: cost and registration
What the Claude Certified Architect — Foundations (CCAR-F) exam costs, what a retake costs, who gets a discount, and how registration works, step by step.
The Claude Certified Architect — Foundations exam costs $125, paid by card when you register in Anthropic Partner Academy. It was $99 until 30 June 2026, when exam delivery moved to Pearson VUE and the fee rose; anyone who had already registered kept the old price. One fee buys one attempt. Everything below is the Partner Academy FAQ's as of 10 October 2026.
| Exam | Code | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Certified Associate — Foundations | CCAO-F | $99 |
| Claude Certified Developer — Foundations | CCDV-F | $125 |
| Claude Certified Architect — Foundations | CCAR-F | $125 |
| Claude Certified Architect — Professional | CCAR-P | $175 |
- Claude Certified Associate — FoundationsCode: CCAO-FFee$99
- Claude Certified Developer — FoundationsCode: CCDV-FFee$125
- Claude Certified Architect — FoundationsCode: CCAR-FFee$125
- Claude Certified Architect — ProfessionalCode: CCAR-PFee$175
What the fee buys
- One attempt: 120 minutes of testing, closed book, online with a proctor or at a Pearson test centre. Plan for about 135 minutes with check-in.
- A registration that stays usable for 5 years, so paying does not commit you to a date.
- Your score on screen as you finish, a score report by email and in your Pearson account, and a Credly badge if you pass.
Who pays less
The discount follows the organisation's tier in the Claude Partner Network, and it is applied at checkout. Registered partners pay the full $125. Select, Preferred and Global Premier partners pay 50% less, which makes the Architect Foundations exam $63. Global Premier partners pay nothing on any exam until 31 December 2026, and the 50% discount applies after that. A retake gets the same discount as the first attempt.
What a retake costs
The full fee again, less your tier's discount, plus a wait: 14 days after a first failure, 30 after a second and 90 after a third, with at most 4 attempts per exam in any rolling year. The waits are per exam, so failing the Architect exam does not stop you booking the Developer one. To dispute a result instead of retaking, appeal to Pearson within 14 days of your exam date.
How to register, step by step
- Open the exam's page in Anthropic Partner Academy. You need an account on your organisation's Partner Academy, which means a work email on its domain; a personal address is blocked at checkout.
- Register and pay by card. The fee is charged now, whether or not you have chosen a date.
- Watch for Pearson's email, which carries the link to log in to Pearson VUE and, on your first Pearson exam, a username and password.
- Schedule on Pearson's Anthropic page: pick online proctoring (OnVUE) or a test centre, then a date and time. To switch between the two later, cancel the appointment and reschedule in the other mode.
The name on your Pearson profile has to match your government-issued ID exactly, and you must be at least 18. If it does not match, Pearson turns you away at check-in and the fee is forfeited, so fix it in advance by emailing certifications-support@anthropic.com from the address you registered with. Request accommodations from Pearson and wait for their approval before you schedule the exam.
Moving or cancelling
Reschedule or cancel through your Pearson account up to 24 hours before the appointment, for a test centre and for online alike; that is the exam guide's figure. Later than that, or not showing up, forfeits the fee. Cancelling in Pearson does not refund anything by itself; a refund is requested by email to certifications-support@anthropic.com. After you reschedule, check for the confirmation email and that the new date shows in your profile, or the change may not have gone through.
After you pass
The credential is valid for 12 months from the day you earn it. Renewing on time is free and takes an unproctored assessment in Partner Academy covering what has changed since you certified. Let it lapse and the only way back is the full exam at the full fee.
The cost beyond the fee
A failed attempt moves your earliest credential date out by at least 14 days, and reading the documentation the night before does not pass this exam. Every question is a production scenario with four remedies, and the skill under test is telling similar mechanisms apart under time pressure. That skill comes from retrieval practice spread over evenings.
Spaced is that practice, on a plan that runs itself: every module taught, then brought back as flashcards, drills and a nightly quiz until the exam, with every mistake filed under the principle behind it. Domain 1 is free in full, and Full Access is $49.99, one payment for 12 months, which is less than half of one attempt at the exam.
Fees and policy change, so check the certification FAQ in Partner Academy and Pearson's Anthropic page; this post follows them as of 10 October 2026.