Anthropic runs four role-based certifications for people who deploy Claude at Claude Partner Network organizations. This page collects what Anthropic has published about them, and says plainly where it hasn’t published something. Every fact links to its Anthropic source.
| Certification | Price (before partner discount) | Counts toward partner network eligibility |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Certified Associate – Foundations | $99 | No |
| Claude Certified Developer – Foundations | $125 | Yes |
| Claude Certified Architect – Foundations | $125 (was $99 before June 30, 2026) | Yes |
| Claude Certified Architect – Professional | $175 | Yes |
All four share one format: 120 minutes of multiple choice and scenario-based multiple response questions (about 135 minutes of seat time, including check-in, instructions and a short survey), scored on a 100–1,000 scale with a passing score of 720. Prices are from the certifications page; format, scoring, the June 30 price change and which exams count toward Claude Partner Network eligibility are from the Certification FAQ. Anthropic’s Partner Academy pages don’t state question counts; each exam’s Exam Guide, linked from the certifications page, is the authoritative source. Anthropic’s July 2026 announcement writes the names with a colon (“Claude Certified Associate: Foundations”); the Partner Academy uses a dash.
Who each is for, in Anthropic’s words from the certifications page: Associate, “for consultants, sellers, and delivery leads who guide customers toward the right Claude use cases”; Developer, “for engineers who build with the Claude API, Claude Code, and Model Context Protocol”; Architect, “for partners who design Claude solutions end to end,” including choosing deployment platforms, shaping agentic architectures, and planning for evaluation, cost and safety. The July 23, 2026 announcement describes Architect – Foundations as being for solution architects who design and build agent systems with Claude, and Architect – Professional as the advanced credential for large enterprises. The two Architect exams are separate: Foundations has no formal prerequisite, Professional doesn’t require Foundations, and passing Foundations doesn’t upgrade automatically to Professional (FAQ).
Today, only people who work at Claude Partner Network organizations. Anthropic’s eligibility page says: “Claude certification exams are open to people who work at organizations in the Claude Partner Network.” You sign in with a company email on a domain listed in your organization’s partner record (a personal address won’t work), and you must be 18 or older with a government-issued ID. If sign-in or checkout fails, the domain is probably missing from the partner record; partner-support@anthropic.com adds it, which typically takes 7 to 10 days. People outside the network can’t register for an exam. They can take Claude Academy, Anthropic’s public courses, which end in a quiz and a certificate of completion; Anthropic is clear that the certificate isn’t a certification. Organizations that deliver Claude to clients can apply to join the network at claude.com/partners, and Anthropic says membership is free (announcement).
You register and pay through the Partner Academy, then schedule with Pearson VUE, online (OnVUE) or at a Pearson test center. A registration is valid for 5 years. Bulk or consolidated billing isn’t available yet, and a voucher storefront is in progress. Exams are offered in English and Japanese. (FAQ)
Exam delivery moved to Pearson VUE and badging to Credly on June 30, 2026. Your Pearson profile name must match your government-issued ID exactly; to fix a mismatch, email certifications-support@anthropic.com at least 24 hours before the exam with the subject “Name Correction Request.” Exams are closed book, and browser translation tools aren’t permitted. Candidates with IDs from Belarus, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, Syria or restricted regions of Ukraine can’t test online and must use a test center, and Pearson suspended delivery for residents of Iran, online and at test centers, from September 8, 2026. Request accommodations at least 10 days before your exam. (FAQ)
Reschedule or cancel at least 48 hours before your appointment; later changes and no-shows forfeit the fee. On refunds, Anthropic’s two pages read differently: the policies page says cancelling in that window gets a full refund, while the FAQ says cancelling the Pearson appointment doesn’t itself trigger a refund and that you request one from certifications-support@anthropic.com. Follow the email route. Sessions may be monitored, including audiovisual recording; exam content is confidential, and you agree not to share, reproduce or discuss the questions. Cheating or fraud can mean a required retake, test-center-only exams, an invalidated result, suspension or revocation, or a ban from the program, with no refund (policies page).
The score report shows your scaled score, pass or fail, and the percentage of items you answered correctly in each section. Passing earns a Credly badge; Anthropic recommends adding a personal email to your Credly profile so you keep it if you change employers. If you fail, the waits are 14 days after the first attempt, 30 after the second and 90 after the third, with up to 4 attempts per exam in a rolling 12 months. Each retake costs the full fee, and partner discounts apply. Failing one exam doesn’t block you from registering for another, and once you pass you can’t retake that exam to raise your score. (FAQ; policies page)
Certifications are valid for 12 months from the date you earn them; those earned before June 30, 2026 under the earlier 6-month rule were extended automatically to 12 months from their original date. Renewing on time is free, through an assessment on the Partner Academy that covers what has changed since you certified. The FAQ calls it non-proctored; the policies page calls it an open-book online assessment that adds 12 months from your current expiration date and can be retaken as needed. A lapsed certification means passing the full exam again at the full fee. (FAQ; policies page)
Registered-tier partners pay full price. Select, Preferred and Global Premier partners get 50% off, applied at checkout, and Global Premier partners get 100% off through December 31, 2026, then 50% (FAQ). Per Anthropic’s June 3, 2026 announcement, the Services Track tiers need at least 10 (Select), 100 (Preferred) and 1,000 (Global Premier) active certified individuals, where a certified practitioner holds a current Anthropic certification and has used Claude in the past 90 days.
Each certification has free prep on the Partner Academy (exam prep courses): the Associate path (8 lessons, about 6.5 hours), the Developer – Foundations path (5 lessons, about 13 hours), the Architect – Foundations prep courses (7 courses, from Claude 101 and Claude Code in Action to Introduction to Model Context Protocol), and the Architect – Professional path (5 lessons, about 12 hours). Each Exam Guide includes sample questions; the practice exam on the earlier platform was retired in the move to Pearson (FAQ).
March 2026: the program launches with the Claude Partner Network (announcement). June 30, 2026: delivery moves to Pearson VUE and badges to Credly; Architect – Foundations goes from $99 to $125; validity goes from 6 to 12 months; earlier failed Architect – Foundations attempts are cleared (FAQ). July 23, 2026: Associate, Developer – Foundations and Architect – Professional are announced, with more than 36,000 people certified across more than 1,300 organizations (announcement). September 8, 2026: Pearson suspends delivery for residents of Iran (FAQ).
Trelos doesn’t currently offer a track for these exams. If your organization needs one for a cohort, write to hello@trelos.ai (for organizations).
How Trelos works · why guessing first, spaced review and mixed practice make it stick.