AIGP Certification: Exam, Cost, Domains and Study Plan

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IAPP publishes almost everything you need to know about the AIGP, but spreads it across a certification page, a store listing, an FAQ, a candidate handbook and a nine-page Body of Knowledge. This guide puts it in one place, read from those pages on 24 September 2026.

What does the AIGP certify?

The AIGP comes from IAPP, the not-for-profit association founded in 2000 that also runs the CIPP, CIPM and CIPT privacy certifications. IAPP says it “demonstrates competency in AI development, the ability to conduct ethical AI deployment, and the ability to utilize best practices in AI management to ensure safety and trust.” It is a governance credential, not a technical one: the tasks the Body of Knowledge lists are ones like writing AI policies, running impact assessments, reviewing vendor contracts and deciding when a system should be switched off. Its own summary of the audience is one line: “Anyone responsible for adopting or managing AI in an organization will benefit.”

Three facts about the credential are worth knowing before you buy:

• No listed prerequisite. None of the IAPP pages we read, including the certification page, the store listing, the FAQ and the candidate handbook, lists one for the exam.
• Not accredited by ANAB. IAPP's candidate handbook says its CIPP/E, CIPP/US, CIPM and CIPT are accredited by the ANSI National Accreditation Board under ISO/IEC 17024, and that “the IAPP AIGP, CDPO, CIPP/A and CIPP/C certifications are not accredited by ANAB”, though they follow the same policies and procedures. IAPP’s general FAQ calls its certifications ANAB-recognised without naming them; the handbook, which names each one, leaves out the AIGP.
• It counts toward a senior IAPP designation. IAPP's Fellow of Information Privacy asks for an active CIPP plus an active AIGP, CIPM or CIPT, three years of privacy work, references and a personal statement.

For how the AIGP sits beside ISO/IEC 42001 training and EU AI Act courses, see our AI governance certifications overview.

AIGP exam format

You buy the exam from IAPP's store and sit it through Pearson VUE, at a test centre or online through Pearson's OnVUE remote proctoring.

The table below shows the fee and format of AIGP, as IAPP publishes them. Every other exam we track is compared on our AI certification exams page.

The rules that matter on the day, from IAPP's certification FAQ and candidate handbook:

• Questions. All 100 are multiple choice, and some are scenario-based. A multi-select question says how many answers to choose, and you get credit only if you choose exactly that many correct ones.
• The break. Halfway through you are offered a 15-minute break that splits the exam into two halves, each with half the questions and half the time. Whether or not you take it, you submit the first half and cannot go back to it.
• Scoring. Correct answers are converted to a scale from 100 to 500, and 300 or above is a pass. IAPP stresses that 300 “does not represent 60%”. Questions are not weighted, and there is no minimum per section.
• Results. You see pass or fail and your score when you finish, then the percentage you got right in each domain. IAPP does not tell you how many questions you answered correctly, and you cannot review the ones you missed.
• Scheduling. You must sit the exam within one year of buying it or forfeit the fee, and book at least 24 hours ahead. A test-centre appointment can be moved or cancelled up to 48 hours before; an OnVUE one up to 15 minutes after its start time.
• Retakes. If you fail, you buy the exam again at a discounted retake price, and the new attempt cannot be sooner than seven days after the last.

The four AIGP domains

The exam is written from IAPP's AIGP Body of Knowledge and Exam Blueprint, version 2.1, in force since 2 February 2026. The handbook says no question appears on the exam that the Body of Knowledge does not cover, and that it “should serve as the candidate's core resource.”

The table below lists the four domains of IAPP's AIGP Body of Knowledge, version 2.1, with the minimum and maximum number of exam questions the blueprint sets for each and the main topics each domain names.

The ranges add up to between 77 and 93 questions, fewer than the 100 on the exam. IAPP's handbook says the number of scored and unscored questions is listed on each certification's page; the AIGP page did not show it when we read it, so we do not guess at the split.

Two more things change how you should study. IAPP says its questions sit mostly at the “remember/understand and apply/analyze” levels of Bloom's taxonomy, so expect scenarios that ask you to apply a rule, not only to recall it. And the Body of Knowledge is reviewed every year: the handbook says about 10% to 15% of exam content changes in each annual update, announced at least 90 days ahead, so download the current version when you start and check it again before you book.

Domain II includes ISO/IEC 42001, the AI management-system standard; our governance overview explains why it certifies organisations rather than people. The EU AI Act, the first law Domain II names, has its own training guide.

What the AIGP costs

The AIGP exam is $799, or $649 for IAPP members. Passing does not make you certified on its own: IAPP requires a membership or a certification maintenance fee before the certification becomes active and the certificate is issued. IAPP's store listing for the exam says a non-member's fee already includes the first maintenance fee, so $799 is the only compulsory cost; IAPP's general FAQ still tells newly passed candidates to buy a membership or maintenance fee, so check that your MyIAPP account shows the certification as active after you pass. A member pays less for the exam but must keep an IAPP membership, $295 a year on 24 September 2026, for the certification to stay active. If you already hold another IAPP certification, your first attempt is sold at a reduced price; the store asks when you buy.

Everything else is optional. IAPP's store prices on 24 September 2026:

• IAPP's online training: $1,195, or $995 for members, for self-paced modules that IAPP says deliver “the equivalent of a 13-hour live training”.
• The official practice exam: $60, or $50 for members, for 100 practice questions in a PDF with the answers explained.
• The Body of Knowledge, the study guide and the candidate handbook: free.

So a non-member pays from $799, preparing from the free material, to a little over $2,000 with the official course and practice exam. Before you pay yourself, ask whether your employer will; our guide to employer-paid AI training covers how to make the case.

How to prepare: a six-week study plan

IAPP recommends “a minimum of 30 hours” of training and study for each of its certifications, and says no single paid resource is required to pass. Here is one way to spend those 30 hours over six weeks, at about five hours a week; stretch it if the regulatory material is new to you.

1. Week 1: map the syllabus. Read the Body of Knowledge and the candidate handbook. Get the free study guide from IAPP's AIGP page and try its sample questions cold, to see which domains you already know.
2. Weeks 2 and 3: foundations and law (Domains I and II). Work through responsible-AI principles and governance roles, then the law. Read the documents Domain II names where you can: the EU AI Act, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and the OECD AI principles. IAPP's Key Terms for AI Governance glossary is a useful companion.
3. Weeks 4 and 5: development and deployment (Domains III and IV). These are the two largest domains, at 21 to 25 questions each. Practise on real cases: for a system you know, write down the impact assessment, testing, monitoring and incident steps the Body of Knowledge lists.
4. Week 6: test and review. Take a timed practice run, with IAPP's practice exam if you bought it, then revisit the domains where you dropped most marks. Sit the exam at the end of this week: IAPP recommends booking as far in advance as you can, so book that date in week 1.

Two warnings come from IAPP itself. Preparation material from anyone other than IAPP and its official training partners is “not endorsed by the IAPP”, and a candidate who knowingly uses a “dump site” of live exam questions breaks the confidentiality agreement signed before the exam and can face disciplinary action, up to revocation. Unofficial trainers, IAPP adds, often guarantee a pass or claim to be authorised; it publishes a list of its official training partners. Our guide to using practice exams well applies here too.

AIGP training options

IAPP's own training comes self-paced online, live online, in person, or as group training for an organisation, and its curriculum follows the Body of Knowledge. IAPP is frank that its courses are “not purely test prep, nor does taking training guarantee you'll pass your exam”: its training and certification teams are kept separate, and its instructors cannot see the exam.

Outside IAPP, lower-cost courses teach parts of the same ground. They are background rather than exam preparation, and IAPP endorses none of them, but they are a quick way to find out whether governance work suits you before you pay for the exam. The ones we would start with are at the top of this page, and our responsible AI certifications guide compares the wider field.

Keeping the AIGP: renewal and maintenance

Once you pass and have a membership or maintenance fee in place, IAPP sends a digital certificate through Accredible within two weeks. The certification term is two years from when you pass. If you already hold an IAPP certification, IAPP's continuing education policy aligns the AIGP to that certification's term dates instead, so your first AIGP term can be shorter. Each term you must:

• Earn 20 continuing-education credits whose content corresponds to the Body of Knowledge. Credits for IAPP's own events and web conferences are added automatically; anything else you report through the CPE submission form in your MyIAPP account.
• Pay the maintenance fee or keep a membership. A non-member's first certification maintenance fee is included in the exam price, and each recertification after that costs a maintenance fee of $250. A member pays no separate fee: the $295 annual membership covers it.

Miss either and the certification is suspended until you make up what is missing. IAPP's continuing education policy adds that a certification still suspended when a term reaches its end date is revoked, and a revoked certification can only be restored by passing the exam again. The same policy lets you renew by retaking the exam instead of reporting credits, if you prefer.

Who the AIGP suits, and who should skip it

It suits people whose job is, or is about to be, deciding whether an organisation's use of AI is lawful and safe: privacy and data-protection staff taking on AI oversight, compliance, risk and internal-audit professionals, lawyers advising on AI, and product or engineering leads who have become the person who signs off AI deployments. It comes from a body whose certifications, IAPP says, more than 41,000 professionals hold.

It is a poorer fit if you build AI systems and have no plans to own their governance: the exam tests policy, law and oversight, not engineering. If you are unsure whether governance is your lane, test it cheaply first, with the regulators' own documents or a short course. Our guide to becoming an AI governance specialist covers the career route, and the guides for lawyers and consultants cover those roles. If your work is audit or security rather than policy, compare our ISACA AI certifications and AI security certifications guides.

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