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Claude Certified Associate - Foundations

Claude Certified Associate - Foundations (CCAO-F) is Anthropic's certification exam for professionals who use Claude as a productivity tool in roles such as operations, marketing, project management and communications. It is open only to people at Claude Partner Network organizations and does not count toward Claude Partner Network eligibility. The exam has 60 multiple-choice and multiple-response items in 120 minutes across seven domains, from prompting and output evaluation to governance and responsible use; no coding is needed. A scaled score of 720 passes, and the credential is valid for 12 months. Its exam guide dates from July 2026. No hiring evidence exists yet. As shown in the United States on 7 October 2026, the exam fee is USD 99.

Facts checked 7 Oct 2026

Price
USD 99
As shown in the United States on 7 October 2026, the official exam page displays Purchase | $99, and the certifications page and exam guide list the exam fee as $99 USD. Each retake costs the full fee again. Taxes are not stated on the exam pages.
Provider link

See price and enroll at Anthropic (official site) ↗

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Time
120 minutes to answer the exam questions; about 135 minutes of total seat time including check-in, instructions and a brief survey. Not preparation time.
Level
Foundations
Credential
industry certification

Valid for 12 months from the date it is awarded. Before it expires it can be renewed free by passing an open-book, non-proctored online assessment on Anthropic Partner Academy, which extends it by another 12 months from the expiration date; a lapsed certification needs the full exam again at the full fee. After a substantial exam update, holders may need to pass the new exam version to stay certified (exam guide and certification policies).

Prerequisites
Open only to people at Claude Partner Network organizations: registration needs a partner email address on a recognized company domain, and candidates must be at least 18. No mandatory prerequisites or required courses, and no software development or API experience is needed (exam guide). Recommended, not required: regular hands-on experience using Claude in a professional setting and a practical understanding of AI limitations such as hallucinations, context constraints and data sensitivity.
Format
Proctored certification exam (online or at a Pearson VUE test center), registered and paid on Anthropic Partner Academy; available only to people at Claude Partner Network organizations

Commercial status: no commercial relationship is documented for this page. The verification link goes directly to the official provider source.

Facts checked 7 October 2026 against Anthropic’s official page ·
Sources ↗
· Next check November 2026

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Claude Certified Associate - Foundations: USD 99; position among 24 other certification exams with accepted USD prices. Payment scopes differ. This price checked 2026-10-07. Registry snapshot 2026-10-07.

See the full registry price landscape. Prices retain their stated payment scope; they are not comparable completion costs.

What’s covered

  • Prompting and Task Execution
  • Output Evaluation and Validation
  • Product and Model Selection
  • Workflow Integration and Solution Design
  • Configuration and Knowledge Management
  • Governance, Risk, and Responsible Use
  • Troubleshooting and Optimization

Prerequisites: Open only to people at Claude Partner Network organizations: registration needs a partner email address on a recognized company domain, and candidates must be at least 18. No mandatory prerequisites or required courses, and no software development or API experience is needed (exam guide). Recommended, not required: regular hands-on experience using Claude in a professional setting and a practical understanding of AI limitations such as hallucinations, context constraints and data sensitivity.

Explore Anthropic

What you actually do

  • Prompting and Task Execution : Exam content domain, 14% of scored items / not a course module · Source
  • Output Evaluation and Validation : Exam content domain, 21% of scored items / not a course module · Source
  • Product and Model Selection : Exam content domain, 12% of scored items / not a course module · Source
  • Workflow Integration and Solution Design : Exam content domain, 16% of scored items / not a course module · Source
  • Configuration and Knowledge Management : Exam content domain, 12% of scored items / not a course module · Source
  • Governance, Risk, and Responsible Use : Exam content domain, 15% of scored items / not a course module · Source
  • Troubleshooting and Optimization : Exam content domain, 10% of scored items / not a course module · Source

What the credential is

Credential type
industry certification · everpath-course-content.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com / instructor%2F6nizmqk8tpzpfjvt6qmmav7rh%2Fpublic%2F1783542847%2FClaude+Certified+Associate+%E2%80%93+Foundations+Exam+Guide.pdf
Credential
Claude Certified Associate - Foundations · everpath-course-content.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com / instructor%2F6nizmqk8tpzpfjvt6qmmav7rh%2Fpublic%2F1783542847%2FClaude+Certified+Associate+%E2%80%93+Foundations+Exam+Guide.pdf anthropic-partners.skilljar.com / faq-certifications anthropic-partners.skilljar.com / policies-certifications anthropic-partners.skilljar.com / partner-certifications
Issuer
Anthropic · everpath-course-content.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com / instructor%2F6nizmqk8tpzpfjvt6qmmav7rh%2Fpublic%2F1783542847%2FClaude+Certified+Associate+%E2%80%93+Foundations+Exam+Guide.pdf anthropic-partners.skilljar.com / faq-certifications anthropic-partners.skilljar.com / policies-certifications anthropic-partners.skilljar.com / partner-certifications
Sharing
Passing earns a Credly digital badge that can be shared on LinkedIn or anywhere else, and a PDF certificate can be downloaded from the Credly account (certification FAQ). The certification belongs to the individual, not the employer (certification policies). · anthropic-partners.skilljar.com / faq-certifications anthropic-partners.skilljar.com / policies-certifications
Expiry and renewal
Valid for 12 months from the date it is awarded. Before it expires it can be renewed free by passing an open-book, non-proctored online assessment on Anthropic Partner Academy, which extends it by another 12 months from the expiration date; a lapsed certification needs the full exam again at the full fee. After a substantial exam update, holders may need to pass the new exam version to stay certified (exam guide and certification policies). · everpath-course-content.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com / instructor%2F6nizmqk8tpzpfjvt6qmmav7rh%2Fpublic%2F1783542847%2FClaude+Certified+Associate+%E2%80%93+Foundations+Exam+Guide.pdf anthropic-partners.skilljar.com / policies-certifications
Exam requirement
Pass the CCAO-F exam: 60 multiple-choice and multiple-response items in 120 minutes; a scaled score of 720 on a 100 to 1,000 scale passes (exam guide; the FAQ gives 720 for all four certifications). · everpath-course-content.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com / instructor%2F6nizmqk8tpzpfjvt6qmmav7rh%2Fpublic%2F1783542847%2FClaude+Certified+Associate+%E2%80%93+Foundations+Exam+Guide.pdf anthropic-partners.skilljar.com / faq-certifications
Credential scope
The certifications page and FAQ state that the Associate certification does not count toward Claude Partner Network eligibility, unlike the Developer and Architect certifications. · anthropic-partners.skilljar.com / partner-certifications anthropic-partners.skilljar.com / faq-certifications

Total cost to finish

Estimate for the stated payment scope: USD 99 × 1 = USD 99.

  • One exam attempt: USD 99 × 1 = USD 99. One exam registration as displayed on the official page. Not a guarantee of passing or complete preparation cost. · Source

Scope: Displayed exam price only. Rescheduling or cancelling at least 48 hours before the appointment is free and a cancellation in that window is fully refunded; later changes or a no-show forfeit the fee (certification policies and FAQ). The exam guide states a 24-hour limit instead; the captured sources differ. The registration stays valid for 5 years (FAQ). · Source Source Source Source Source

Retakes: Each attempt, including a retake, costs the full exam fee; the certification FAQ states "A retake is the full exam fee." Waiting periods grow with each failed attempt: 14 days after the first, 30 days after the second and 90 days after the third, with at most four attempts at the same exam in any 12-month period (certification policies and exam guide, as shown in the United States on 7 October 2026). · Source Source Source Source Source

Who should skip it

  • Software developers who build against APIs or design agentic systems, and specialists in machine learning, software engineering or advanced AI system design; that scope belongs to the Claude Architect and Claude Developer credentials (exam guide). · Official source · 2026-10-07
  • People outside the Claude Partner Network: certification is available only to people at Claude Partner Network organizations, and personal email addresses will not work for registration. · Official source · 2026-10-07
  • Open-book use: exams are closed book, and using AI products or services, notes or documentation during the exam is prohibited. · Official source · 2026-10-07

Alternatives in the registry

Related by topic or level.

  • AI Agent Architecture : 365 Data Science Self-Study : USD 36/month for course content, billed monthly at the regular price; 2 hours.
  • AI agent engineer : Check official price; 36 hours of content (provider-listed).
  • AI Ethics : Check official price; 4 hours (provider headline; module and exam timings listed separately).

Change log

  • : Initial record from the official exam page, the certifications page, FAQ and policies, the exam guide and the exam policy captured from the United States on 7 October 2026. · Source

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