How much does ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity cost?

The largest reduction on this exam is the one ISC2 sets up for you. Check the certification page for a One Million Certified in Cybersecurity offer before you buy anything. When it runs, it pairs free self-paced training with a free exam, which takes the whole $199 to nothing. It is periodic rather than permanent, so treat it as something to catch rather than something to count on.

Join as an ISC2 Candidate first regardless. It is free, it comes with study material, and it reduces your first-year maintenance fee. Paying the standard voucher without checking the Candidate benefits is money left on the table.

If you are eligible, ISC2 exams are covered under DoD COOL for service members, which pays the fee rather than discounting it. For a $199 exam that covers the whole cost for those who qualify.

Skip the paid bootcamps. CC is deliberately entry-level, the free training covers the blueprint, and a several-hundred-dollar course for a definitional exam is paying for structure you can get for nothing.

A retake is another $199 at the standard price, with no partial credit for the domains you passed. Two attempts is $398, which is more than every other cost of earning the certification put together.

ISC2 sets a waiting period between attempts and a limit on how many times you can sit the exam in a year, so a failed attempt is not something you can immediately rebook your way out of. Read the current retake policy on the ISC2 site before you plan a second date.

Your score report points at the domains where you fell short. CC is definitional, so a failure is almost always a domain you skimmed rather than a general shortfall. Drill the named domain until your practice scores sit above the line, then spend the $199 again.

CC runs on a three-year cycle. Keeping it means earning 45 CPE credits across the three years and paying the $50 annual maintenance fee each year you hold the credential.

The maintenance fee is the recurring cost people forget when they compare CC against a one-time exam. At $50 a year it is $150 over a full cycle, and it is charged for every ISC2 certification you hold, so the number grows if you go on to SSCP or CISSP later.

CPE credits come from activities many people in this field do anyway: training, webinars, conference attendance, and reading toward the next certification. If you move on to Security+ or another credential during the cycle, that study can supply the credits, so the renewal cost in practice is the maintenance fee rather than the credits.

Let the certification lapse and you lose it, and the way back is the exam again. Put the maintenance fee and the CPE deadline in a calendar the day you pass, because a $50 fee missed is a far more expensive mistake than it looks.

Preparation for Certified in Cybersecurity can genuinely cost nothing. The realistic range people spend is $0 to $150, and the top of that range buys convenience rather than a better chance of passing.

Our questions, explanations, and cheat sheets are free, and the explanation is never paywalled. That is the part of a paid practice set you are actually buying, so it is the part we do not charge for.