CompTIA A+ exam cost: what both core exams really cost in 2026

A single CompTIA A+ exam voucher lists at $274 in the United States, and because the certification requires two separate exams, the minimum you can spend on exams alone is $548. That is the floor, not the total. Every retake is another full-price voucher, CompTIA sells no free retests, and keeping the certification alive costs a $75 continuing education fee plus 20 CEUs every three years.

Most "A+ cost" articles quote one voucher price and stop, which understates the bill by at least half. A+ is the only entry-level CompTIA certification that makes you sit two exams, so almost every number you have read for other certifications has to be doubled before it applies here. Below is the full picture, taken from CompTIA's own product and policy pages in August 2026.

How much does the CompTIA A+ exam cost?

$274 per exam at CompTIA's US list price, or $548 for the pair. The voucher is single-use, valid for 12 months from purchase, and redeemable for either Core 1 (220-1201) or Core 2 (220-1202). It buys one seat and nothing else: no course, no practice tests, no study guide and no second attempt.

Two things in that table are worth pausing on. The complete bundle for Core 2 costs more than the one for Core 1, because Core 2 has an extra product in the CertMaster line. And retake assurance is priced as a straightforward bet, which makes it one of the few purchases here you can actually do arithmetic on.

Is CompTIA A+ retake assurance worth $85?

It pays off if you think your chance of failing that core is better than roughly one in three. The bare voucher is $274 and the version with retake assurance is $359, so you are paying $85 to avoid a possible $274. Break-even sits at about 31%.

In practice that means the answer differs per exam and per person. If you have been scoring consistently in the high 80s on practice questions across every domain, you are well under the break-even line and the $85 is wasted on both cores. If you booked a date because an employer deadline forced it, or you are sitting Core 2 having barely scraped Core 1, the insurance is cheap. Buying it reflexively for both exams costs $170 and is the most common way people overpay here.

Worth remembering that the two cores are graded independently, with different cut scores: Core 1 passes at 675 and Core 2 at 700 on a scale of 100 to 900. Failing one does not touch your pass on the other, so a retake is always a single $274 voucher rather than a fresh start. If you want to check where you stand before spending anything, work through the CompTIA A+ practice test questions covering all nine Core 1 and Core 2 domains.

What a failed attempt actually costs

More than $274, because of the waiting rules. CompTIA requires no waiting period between a first and second attempt, so a fast retake is possible. From the third attempt onward, and for every attempt after that, you must wait at least 14 calendar days from your previous try. There is no cap on the number of attempts, but there is also no mercy on price: every single one is a full-price voucher.

The other cost is schedule. If A+ is a condition of a job offer or a probation period, a 14 day wait between attempts three and four can matter more than the money. That is the real argument for not booking the exam early to "see how it goes", which is a strategy that reliably costs $274 to learn something a free practice set would have told you.

The three-year total cost of CompTIA A+

The certification lasts three years from the date you pass your second core exam, and the honest budget is the whole cycle rather than the vouchers. Here are three realistic paths.

The spread between the cheapest and the most expensive path is more than double, and almost none of it is the exam. It is training. Which is worth knowing before you buy, because the exam price is fixed and the training price is entirely a choice.

How to pay less than list price

Four routes reliably cut the cost, and none of them involves a questionable seller.

• The CompTIA academic store. If you can verify enrollment or a teaching role, this is the largest discount available and it is substantial.
• Authorized resellers and training partners. They buy vouchers in volume and pass some margin on. The voucher is the identical product with the identical Pearson VUE redemption.
• Employer reimbursement. A+ is the standard hiring credential for help desk and desktop support roles, so IT departments budget for it routinely. Ask before you pay personally.
• Workforce and veteran funding. State workforce development programs and GI Bill certification reimbursement both cover CompTIA exams in many cases.

What does not work is the sites selling "real exam questions" at a fraction of the price. CompTIA's candidate agreement covers unauthorized training material explicitly, and using it is grounds for revoking a certification you already paid for. That turns a $548 investment into a $548 loss.

What renewal costs, and how to pay nothing for it

A+ needs 20 CEUs plus a $75 total continuing education fee across the three-year cycle. That is the cheapest renewal in the CompTIA lineup: Network+, Security+, Linux+ and Cloud+ all cost $150 for the same window, and most of them require more CEUs.

There are two ways to pay nothing. Passing any higher-level CompTIA certification renews A+ automatically, along with everything below it, at no separate fee, so anyone who moves on to Network+ or Security+ never pays A+ renewal at all. Passing the latest version of the A+ exams themselves also resets the three-year clock. If neither applies, CE tokens cost $25 and $50, do not expire, and can be bought ahead of a deadline if you would rather pay than scramble for activities in your final month.

Is the $548 worth it?

That depends on what the certification is for, and the honest answer is that A+ is a hiring filter more than a skills credential. It appears in more entry-level tech support job listings than any other certification, which means its value is mostly in getting a resume past the first screen. If you already have two years of hands-on support experience and a working professional network, it will teach you less than it costs. If you are trying to enter IT without a degree or prior experience, it is one of the few credentials that reliably opens the first door.

It also helps to know what the job on the other side looks like, because A+ is written for it. Help desk work is triage more than repair: a queue of incoming requests that has to be classified, prioritized by real impact rather than by who shouted loudest, and routed to whoever can actually resolve it. That is why Core 2 spends a full fifth of its score on operational procedures, ticketing and communication rather than on technology. Candidates who treat those domains as filler tend to be the ones who fail Core 2 after passing Core 1 comfortably.

If the plan is a security career rather than a support career, price the ladder before you start. A+ at $548 followed by Security+ at $439 is close to $1,000 in vouchers, and some employers will accept Security+ on its own for the roles they are hiring for.

The short version

$274 per exam, $548 for both, and that is the floor. Add $274 for each failure, $75 for renewal every three years, and anywhere from nothing to $1,321 for training depending entirely on how you choose to study. The exam price is the part you cannot negotiate. Everything else on the bill is a decision, and the cheapest way to keep the total near the floor is to not book either exam until your practice accuracy says you will pass it the first time.