AWS Recertification: How the 3-Year Renewal Actually Works
Every AWS certification is valid for three years from the date you earn it, and AWS is direct about the standard path back to current: "AWS does not require or accept other methods of recertification, such as continuing education credits" — you pass the current version of the exam, or you don't stay certified. That's still true today. What's changed recently is that a second, genuinely different path now exists for some certifications, and it's new enough that a lot of study guides haven't caught up to it yet.
The standard path: exam-based renewal
The core rule hasn't changed: recertification means passing the current version of your exam again before the three-year mark. AWS also offers a genuinely useful shortcut for Foundational and Associate-level holders: you can satisfy a lower certification's recertification requirement by passing or recertifying with a higher-level role-based exam instead. Passing Solutions Architect Professional, for instance, recertifies Solutions Architect Associate for another three years — you don't need to separately re-sit the Associate exam if you're already moving up.
AWS also makes a 50% discount voucher available through your Certification Account specifically for recertification exams, which is worth checking for before assuming you're paying full price for a retest.
The new path: Maintain (open beta, launched June 2026)
As of an open beta that launched on 23 June 2026, AWS introduced a second recertification option called Maintain, which extends an active certification's validity by one year without sitting an exam at all — instead, you complete curated digital courses and hands-on labs through AWS Skill Builder.
The points requirements differ by level:
| Level |
Points required |
Minimum practical activities |
| Associate |
500 |
At least 1 |
| Professional |
700 |
At least 2 |
"Practical activities" specifically mean building, configuring, and troubleshooting in live AWS environments through realistic scenarios — not just watching video content, which is why they're called out as a separate minimum rather than folded into the general points target.
At launch, Maintain covers Solutions Architect Associate, Developer Associate, CloudOps Engineer Associate, DevOps Engineer Professional, and Solutions Architect Professional, with Data Engineer Associate, Security Specialty, and Machine Learning Engineer Associate confirmed as coming later in 2026. If your certification isn't on that list yet, exam-based renewal remains your only option for now.
The eligibility window is tight either way
Maintain only opens up once your certification is within 90 days of expiration — you can't bank the credits months in advance. You'll also need an active AWS Skill Builder subscription to access the courses and labs that count toward the points total.
One more detail worth knowing if you hold multiple related certifications: maintaining a higher-level certification automatically extends related lower-level active certifications to match the new expiration date too, as long as those lower credentials are themselves expiring within a year — a genuine cascading benefit, not just a coincidental overlap.
Which path makes sense for you
If your certification isn't yet eligible for Maintain, or you'd rather prove current, hands-on exam-level competency rather than course completion, the standard renewal exam is still the more rigorous and universally available option — and it's worth treating a retake with the same domain-weighted study approach as a first attempt, since AWS tests the current version of the exam, which may have shifted since you last sat it.
If your certification is Maintain-eligible and you're within the 90-day window, it's a genuinely lower-friction way to stay current for people who are still actively using AWS day-to-day but don't want the time cost of a full exam retake. Either way, don't let the three-year clock run out unnoticed — AWS sends expiration reminders, but the responsibility for acting on them sits with you, not AWS. If you do end up sitting a renewal exam, our certification question banks are built around each exam's current, published domain weightings, so you're studying against the exam as it exists today, not an outdated version of it.
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