Certifications

What each certification really costs

Total fees, study hours and pass rates side by side, from the issuing bodies. Click through for exam levels, prep and whether it is worth it for you.

14 certifications: all-in cost, study hours, calendar months and the careers that use them, checked September 2026.
CertificationBodyTotal costHoursMonthsCareersFees checked
AWS SAA-C03
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03)		Amazon Web Services$165–$50080–1502–4Cloud or DevOps Engineer, Software Engineer, AI EngineerSeptember 2026
CFA
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)		CFA Institute$4k–$10k900–120018–48Investment Banking Analyst, Private Equity Associate, Quantitative AnalystSeptember 2026
CFP
Certified Financial Planner (CFP)		Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board)$2k–$12k400–100012–30Financial Planner, Financial Analyst, Certified Public AccountantSeptember 2026
CISSP
Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)		ISC2$900–$6k150–3003–9Cybersecurity Analyst, Cloud or DevOps Engineer, Software EngineerSeptember 2026
CKA
Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)		Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), administered by the Linux Foundation$460–$75060–1202–4Cloud or DevOps Engineer, Software Engineer, Machine Learning EngineerSeptember 2026
CompTIA Security+
CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701)		CompTIA$439–$2k80–1502–4Cybersecurity Analyst, Cloud or DevOps Engineer, Software EngineerSeptember 2026
CPA
Certified Public Accountant (CPA)		AICPA and NASBA (licensed by individual US state boards of accountancy)$3k–$7k320–5008–24Certified Public Accountant, Financial Analyst, Investment Banking AnalystJuly 2026
FRM
Financial Risk Manager (FRM)		Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP)$2k–$3k400–6009–24Quantitative Analyst, Financial Analyst, Investment Banking AnalystSeptember 2026
Google Cybersecurity Certificate
Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate		Google (delivered on Coursera)$147–$294132–1803–6Cybersecurity Analyst, Cloud or DevOps EngineerSeptember 2026
Google Data Analytics Certificate
Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate		Google (delivered on Coursera)$147–$294180–2403–6Data Analyst, Financial Analyst, Product ManagerSeptember 2026
PL-300
Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate (Exam PL-300)		Microsoft$165–$35040–901–3Data Analyst, Financial Analyst, Product ManagerSeptember 2026
PMP
Project Management Professional (PMP)		Project Management Institute (PMI)$620–$3k100–2002–6Project Manager, Management Consultant, Product ManagerSeptember 2026
SIE and Series 7
FINRA Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) and Series 7 General Securities Representative		Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)$600–$2k110–2202–6Investment Banking Analyst, Financial Planner, Financial AnalystSeptember 2026
SOA Exam P and FM
SOA Preliminary Actuarial Exams: Exam P (Probability) and Exam FM (Financial Mathematics)		Society of Actuaries (SOA); both exams are jointly sponsored with the Casualty Actuarial Society$940–$2k600–8006–14Actuary, Quantitative Analyst, Data ScientistSeptember 2026

Which certification is worth it?

One-line verdicts; the full reasoning is on each page.

Amazon Web Services AWS SAA-C03 The AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate is worth it if you are moving into cloud, platform or technical pre-sales work from on-premise IT or general development, or your employer needs certified headcount for AWS Partner Network tier requirements; it is close to pointless if you already have several years of production AWS experience and systems you can point at. $165–$500 all-in · 80–150 h CFA Institute CFA The CFA is worth it if you are already in, or credibly aiming at, an investment seat - equity or credit research, asset management, portfolio management, investment risk or institutional wealth - where it is a stated screen and employers often reimburse it; it is not worth it for investment banking, private equity or corporate finance, where deal experience and modelling tests decide hiring. $4k–$10k all-in · 900–1200 h Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards (CFP Board) CFP The CFP is worth it if your career is client-facing financial advice at a registered investment adviser, a bank wealth desk or a hybrid broker-dealer, where it is usually a condition of becoming a lead adviser; it is not worth it for institutional investment management, research or corporate finance, where the CFA does far more. $2k–$12k all-in · 400–1000 h ISC2 CISSP The CISSP is worth it if you have the five years of experience and want to move from doing security to owning it - security manager, governance and risk lead, security architect or a step toward CISO - where it clears HR screens and federal contracting requirements; it is not worth it early in a career, because passing without the experience leaves you an Associate of ISC2 and the material is management vocabulary rather than technique. $900–$6k all-in · 150–300 h Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), administered by the Linux Foundation CKA The CKA is worth it if you want or already hold a platform, site reliability, infrastructure or DevOps role, because a performance-based exam on live clusters cannot be passed from a question dump and technical interviewers know that; it is not worth it for application developers who only consume a platform someone else runs, where CKAD or nothing is the better answer. $460–$750 all-in · 60–120 h CompTIA CompTIA Security+ CompTIA Security+ is worth it if you are targeting US federal or defence-contractor work, where it is an approved DoD 8140 IAT Level II baseline and you are not eligible for a large class of roles without it, or if you are breaking into security from helpdesk, systems administration or outside IT; it is worth nothing if you already have real incident or security engineering experience. $439–$2k all-in · 80–150 h AICPA and NASBA (licensed by individual US state boards of accountancy) CPA The CPA is worth it if you are going into public accounting, want to run an accounting function, or want the legal authority to sign audits, where it is not optional and firms usually pay for the review course; it is not worth it for investment roles, startups or corporate strategy, where the 150-hour requirement is an expensive detour. $3k–$7k all-in · 320–500 h Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) FRM The FRM is worth it if you already work in or next to a risk function at a bank, asset manager or regulator and want the portable signal for that market; it is not worth it if you are aiming at front-office trading, research or corporate finance, where it reads as a back-office credential. $2k–$3k all-in · 400–600 h Google (delivered on Coursera) Google Cybersecurity Certificate The Google Cybersecurity Certificate is worth it if you are starting from zero and will sit CompTIA Security+ within a couple of months of finishing; it is not worth it if you expect a completion badge on its own to produce security interviews in a market this oversupplied. $147–$294 all-in · 132–180 h Google (delivered on Coursera) Google Data Analytics Certificate The Google Data Analytics Certificate is worth it as a curriculum if you are starting from zero and will follow it with your own portfolio projects; it is not worth it as a credential, because hiring managers see a great many of them and screen on evidence of work instead. $147–$294 all-in · 180–240 h Microsoft PL-300 PL-300 is worth it if you work in or want to work in a Microsoft-shop organisation where Power BI is the reporting layer, because at USD 165 and 40 to 90 hours it is the cheapest proctored credential an analyst can hold; it is not worth it if your employer runs Tableau, Looker or a warehouse-and-dbt stack. $165–$350 all-in · 40–90 h Project Management Institute (PMI) PMP The PMP is worth it if you already lead projects and are targeting government and defence contracting, construction, healthcare IT, pharma, utilities or a large consultancy, where it is asked for by name; it is close to irrelevant in software product organisations and startups. $620–$3k all-in · 100–200 h Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) SIE and Series 7 Taking the SIE on your own is worth it if you are chasing a brokerage, wealth or private-client job, because USD 100 buys concrete evidence you will clear the firm's licensing gauntlet; the Series 7 is not a choice you make at all, since it needs an employer to sponsor you. $600–$2k all-in · 110–220 h Society of Actuaries (SOA); both exams are jointly sponsored with the Casualty Actuarial Society SOA Exam P and FM Exam P and Exam FM are worth it if you intend to become an actuary, because employers use passed exams as the hiring screen and then fund the rest; they are not worth it as a general quantitative credential, since no data science or trading employer recognises them. $940–$2k all-in · 600–800 h