How much does an Autodesk certification exam cost?
Autodesk publishes three standard retail prices: US$150 for every Associate-level exam, US$200 for every Professional-level exam, and US$250 for every Expert-level exam. The price attaches to the tier, not the individual exam - the ACP in AutoCAD for Design and Drafting, the ACP in Revit for Architectural Design, and the ACP in Inventor for Mechanical Design all cost the same US$200.
Payment is per appointment: you apply in your Autodesk Account, then schedule and pay from the Certification Dashboard for either delivery route - in person at a Pearson Testing Center or online with Pearson OnVUE. Identity is verified at exam time.
The number that changes budgets is the retake rule - and here Autodesk is more forgiving than most vendors: after a first failed attempt you may immediately reschedule; the wait is only three days after the second and each subsequent attempt. The full math is below.
Every Published Autodesk Exam Fee in One Table
Autodesk prices by tier and publishes the mapping on its certification overview page: Associate US$150, Professional US$200, Expert US$250. The price attaches to the tier, not the individual exam - the ACP in AutoCAD for Design and Drafting, the ACP in Revit for Architectural Design, and the ACP in Inventor for Mechanical Design all cost the same US$200, and every Associate exam in the catalog costs the same US$150. The rows below map the published prices onto the published formats.
One scope note: the Autodesk Certified User tier - the entry credential built for secondary students and non-English speakers - is delivered through Certiport testing centers rather than Pearson OnVUE, so it sits outside this site's remote-only listings and is not priced in the table. The three Pearson-delivered tiers carry the full published fee picture: one standard retail price per tier, paid per appointment, with no voucher system and no published bundle discount.
| Tier | Published standard retail price | Example published formats |
|---|---|---|
| Associate | US$150 | CAD for Mechanical Design Associate: 90 minutes, 44-55 questions, 2-year validity |
| Professional | US$200 | AutoCAD for Design and Drafting; Revit for Architectural Design; Inventor for Mechanical Design: all 120 minutes, 45-60 questions, 3-year validity |
| Expert | US$250 | Expert-tier exams at the published US$250 standard retail price |
| User (Certiport) | Not priced here | Center-based delivery through Certiport - outside remote-only scope |
Scroll horizontally to view all columns.
No vouchers, no bundles - payment as plain as it gets
Unlike Esri, Unity, or ISACA, Autodesk sells no vouchers and publishes no bundle pricing: the standard retail price is paid per appointment through your Autodesk Account at scheduling. There is no voucher validity clock to manage and no tier-locked voucher type to buy wrong.
The trade: because payment attaches to the appointment, cancellation and forfeiture rules bite directly. Pearson's Autodesk OnVUE page states that failing to meet the published online-testing minimums on exam day can result in immediate exam cancellation and forfeiture of your exam fee - the full US$200, not a voucher's residual value.
Rescheduling runs through the same Certification Dashboard. The published constraint that matters for budgeting is the retake waiting rule, not a voucher window.
The retake ladder - published and unusually forgiving
Autodesk's policies page publishes the ladder word-for-word: if you do not pass the first attempt, you may immediately reschedule to take the exam again, based on appointment availability. If you do not pass the second attempt, you wait three days (72 hours). A three-day waiting period applies for each subsequent retake.
The arithmetic at the Professional tier: a first-attempt pass costs US$200; a second-attempt pass costs US$400 total; a third-attempt pass costs US$600. There is no published attempt cap and no published discount for retakes.
Compare that with the vendors that charge full price plus a 14-day or 90-day wait: the Autodesk cost of failure is money, not calendar. What you cannot buy back is the three-year validity clock - it starts at your pass, whenever that is.
The three-year renewal budget
Every Autodesk Professional certification is valid for three years, and renewal means retesting: Autodesk's support page requires a new certification application inside the six-month window before expiry, the exam scheduled, purchased, and passed before the expiry date.
The renewal budget is therefore one US$200 sitting every three years at minimum - plus the retake risk each cycle. There is no grace period for expired credentials, and no published renewal-by-activity alternative: miss the window and the path is the full exam again from scratch.
Employer-paid candidates should note the cadence: this is not a one-time certification cost, it is a recurring US$200-per-three-years line item per credential held.
Where the money actually goes wrong
Fee forfeiture to logistics. A second monitor, headphones within reach, a VPN or shared network - each violates a published OnVUE minimum and can cancel the sitting with the fee forfeited before the first question. The System Test on the exam-day device and network is the published prevention.
Paying for the wrong tier's expectations. The US$200 Professional exam carries a 400-1200 hour experience bar; candidates who sit it cold turn one US$200 fee into a US$400 retake path. The tier is a difficulty marker, not a formality.
Missing the renewal window. The six-month recertification application window is generous, but the no-grace-period rule is absolute: an expired credential means starting over, and the money already spent does not carry.
Get the sitting handled instead
If the fee budget is clear but the sitting is the obstacle, the money pages below cover the three most-searched Autodesk professional exams: AutoCAD for Design and Drafting, Revit for Architectural Design, and Inventor for Mechanical Design, each at the published US$200 Professional-tier price. Every engagement starts the same way - send your background, your target certification, your window, and your deadline - and returns a straight feasibility answer against Autodesk's live published pages. Exam Assist handles the exam sitting end to end, and the service fee is due only after the agreed result posts. That is the whole payment model: no result, no service fee.