AWS AIF-C01 vs. AIP-C01: AI Practitioner or Generative AI Developer Professional

AWS Certified AI Practitioner (AIF-C01) is a foundational exam for people who use, but do not necessarily build, AI/ML solutions on AWS. AWS Certified Generative AI Developer - Professional (AIP-C01) is a professional exam for developers who put generative AI into production. On the AWS recertification page, passing the latest AIP-C01 exam is one of three ways to renew AIF-C01. Facts were observed in the United States on 4 October 2026 unless another date is given.

Choose AIF-C01 if you use or discuss AI on AWS and want a foundational credential: AWS targets up to 6 months of exposure, and coding models or building pipelines is out of scope.

Choose AIP-C01 if you build generative AI applications on AWS: AWS targets 2 or more years of production application building and 1 year implementing generative AI.

How They Relate

The AIP-C01 page^[1] requires no prior certification but says candidates could benefit from earning AWS Certified AI Practitioner. The recertification page^[2] lists the latest AIP-C01 exam as option 3 for renewing AIF-C01.

At a Glance

Scope and Prerequisites

The AIF-C01 exam guide^[4] gives the most weight to applications of foundation models (28 percent) and generative AI fundamentals (24 percent). Coding AI/ML models, feature engineering, tuning and building pipelines are out of scope.

The AIP-C01 exam guide^[5] gives the most weight to foundation model integration, data management and compliance (31 percent) and implementation and integration (26 percent). Its tasks include retrieval augmented generation, vector stores and agentic AI; model development and training are out of scope.

Time, Assessment and Renewal

AIF-C01 can also include ordering and matching items; AIP-C01 uses multiple choice or multiple response. Both are proctored, at a Pearson VUE test center or online, and scored from 100 to 1,000.

The AWS FAQ^[6] requires recertification every three years. As of 4 October 2026, AIF-C01 renews by passing the latest version of AIF-C01, of the AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer - Associate exam or of the AWS Certified Generative AI Developer - Professional exam; AIP-C01 renews by passing its own latest version.

Cost

The AWS exam pages list 100 USD for AIF-C01 and 300 USD for AIP-C01, as shown in the United States on 4 October 2026; foreign exchange details are on AWS exam pricing. Per the FAQ, each retake costs the full fee, after a 14-day wait.

Sources

1. aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-generative-ai-developer-professional/ · checked 2026-10-04
2. aws.amazon.com/certification/recertification/ · checked 2026-10-04
3. aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-ai-practitioner/ · checked 2026-10-04
4. docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/ai-practitioner-01/ai-practitioner-01.html · checked 2026-10-04
5. docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/ai-professional-01/ai-professional-01.html · checked 2026-10-04
6. aws.amazon.com/certification/faqs/ · checked 2026-10-04