What a Databricks certification costs in 2026
Every Databricks certification exam costs $200 USD, excluding tax. Associate and Professional exams are the same price. Retakes cost the full $200 again after a 14-day wait, and a certification is valid for two years from the day it is awarded.
Prices come from Databricks' own exam pages and certification FAQ , re-checked by our daily pipeline. We are an independent community project, not Databricks, and we sell nothing here.
Every paid exam, with its price
| Exam | Level | Price | Format | Valid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Engineer Associate | Associate | $200 | 45 scored questions · 90 min | 2 yr |
| Data Engineer Professional | Professional | $200 | 59 scored questions · 120 min (60 scored from Oct 9, 2026) | 2 yr |
| Data Analyst Associate | Associate | $200 | 45 scored questions · 90 min | 2 yr |
| ML Engineer Associate | Associate | $200 | 48 scored questions · 90 min | 2 yr |
| ML Engineer Professional | Professional | $200 | 59 scored questions · 120 min | 2 yr |
| Generative AI Engineer Associate | Associate | $200 | 45 scored questions · 90 min | 2 yr |
| Context Engineer Associate | Associate | $200 | 45 scored questions · 90 min | 2 yr |
| Apache Spark Developer Associate | Associate | $200 | 45 scored questions · 90 min | 2 yr |
The cost of failing
A retake is the full fee again, and Databricks does not issue free retake vouchers. You wait 14 days between attempts, with no cap on how many you take.
The cost of keeping it
Certifications are valid for two years. Staying certified means passing the current exam again at the full fee, or for Data Engineer Associate, a shorter renewal exam at $200. Budget for it every two years. Find your date
Tax
The published fee excludes tax. What you are charged at checkout depends on your country, so budget slightly above the list price.
When does yours expire?
Pick the credential and the day it was awarded. We will estimate when it expires, when to start renewing and what renewing involves.
Choose a credential to see how long it lasts.
These dates are estimates from the award date you enter. The exact expiry is printed on your credential in your Databricks wallet at credentials.databricks.com (opens in a new tab).
This runs in your browser. We store nothing and send nothing anywhere.
Signed in? You can keep a private list of your credentials with these dates on your account.
Ways to pay less
There is no public discount code. Discounts come from specific programs, and they open and close on a schedule, which is why we track them here rather than writing them down once.
No discount window is open today. Databricks runs its Learning Festival a few times a year, and this page lists the next one when it opens.
Standing offers
- Partner Certification VoucherAmount not stated
Employees of Databricks partner companies can ask the Databricks Help Center for a Partner Certification Voucher, which Databricks sends only to an address on a partner email domain. Each voucher covers one attempt at one certification exam, and Databricks does not publish the discount amount.
Standing offer, no dates published
Full detail on every voucher program, including who qualifies, is on the certifications hub.
What costs nothing
13 accreditations are free. They are short courses with an assessment, not proctored exams, but they carry a shareable badge and cost nothing to attempt. The Platform Architect and Platform Administrator accreditations are free for Databricks customers and partners, and they are valid for one year.
- Databricks Fundamentals
- Lakehouse Architecture Fundamentals
- Data Governance Fundamentals
- AI Security Fundamentals
- Analytics Fundamentals
- Generative AI Fundamentals
- Prompt Engineering Fundamentals
- AI Agent Fundamentals
- Agentic Application Fundamentals
- Platform Administrator
- AWS Platform Architect
- Azure Platform Architect
- GCP Platform Architect
Databricks awards many more badges than these. We list every free badge, including knowledge badges.
Questions people actually ask
- How much does a Databricks certification cost?
- Every Databricks certification exam costs $200 USD, excluding tax. Associate and Professional exams are the same price.
- Do Databricks Professional exams cost more than Associate exams?
- No. Both cost the same. Professional exams are longer and harder, but the registration fee is identical.
- How much does a Databricks certification retake cost?
- Full price again. Databricks states that each attempt is charged at the same price as the original exam and that it does not issue free retake vouchers. You must also wait 14 days between attempts, though there is no limit on the number of attempts.
- Is there a Databricks certification discount code?
- There is no public discount code. Discounted vouchers come from specific programs: Databricks events, beta exams, partner organizations, and the periodic Learning Festival, where completing a learning pathway earns a percentage-off voucher. Any site offering a general-purpose coupon is not selling something Databricks recognizes.
- How long does a Databricks certification last?
- A proctored Databricks certification is valid for two years from the date it is awarded. To renew it, you pass the current version of the exam again at the full fee. For Data Engineer Associate there is also a dedicated renewal exam: 25 scored questions in 60 minutes, online only, for $200. The Platform Architect and Platform Administrator accreditations, which are free for Databricks customers and partners, are valid for one year. Databricks does not state an expiry for its current Fundamentals badges.
- Are there free Databricks credentials?
- Yes. 13 accreditations are free: short courses with an assessment at the end. They are not proctored certifications, but they cost nothing and carry a shareable badge.
Before you pay
The fee is the same whether you pass or not, so the cheapest certification is the one you only sit once. Our free practice questions cover six of these exams, with the code questions executed on a real Spark engine before publication. Not sure which one to sit first? Our full list of Databricks certifications walks through where to start.
Get Tuesday's version of this
We track voucher windows as they open. The Tuesday email carries them alongside what shipped that week. Free, one-click unsubscribe.