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Hi there,
ServiceNow exam costs, one of thé most popular topics in the ServiceNow community. Especially when it comes to "free vouchers"... Let's sum up some of the most frequently asked situations and include the "updated" course and exam prices as of February 4, 2025.
No voucher, no exam!
Most people looking for courses, do this because of the mainline certifications involved. Mainline certifications are taken through Webassessor, and first takes can only be taken applying a voucher. How to get your hands on an exam voucher... by following the corresponding course. This is immediately the first confusing situation out there. When just opening Webassessor, you'll see prices listed. So you can just pay for the exam, right? No!
No voucher, no exam
So why is there a price of 450 USD mentioned on Webassessor (for CIS exams, for CSA/CAD/CAS a price of 300 USD is mentioned)? I have no clue 🙂. Since ServiceNow changed the certification structure in 2017/2018, this is simply the situation.
How to "unlock" a voucher?
As mentioned no exam voucher, no exam. So how do you unlock an exam voucher? In all cases you can unlock an exam voucher by following the corresponding course. Courses are offered instructor led and/or on demand.
Do verify which course you need to follow to unlock the exam voucher. For some programs, there's only a "Fundamentals" or "Essentials"/"Implementation"/"Advanced" course, which would immediately be the course you need to unlock the exam voucher. While for some programs there will be both a Fundamentals and an Implementation/Advanced course, when that's the case most of the time the Essentials/Implementation/Advanced course is the one to take to unlock the exam voucher.
If a course unlocks the exam voucher, is mentioned in the course information on Now Learning. Also this is nicely visualized in the Learning Paths document. Here is an example of the exam voucher for CIS-ITSM, the exam voucher which is tied to the Implementation course.
Do notice that I consequently mention "unlock" an exam voucher. You don't automatically receive a voucher for free in all cases. I'll cover this later on in this blog.
Do you need to follow Fundamentals + Implementation course?
As mentioned some of the programs have a Fundamentals and an Implementation/Advanced course. Do you need to follow both? Invest some time looking into what is mandatory to follow to unlock the exam voucher. In most cases, ServiceNow speaks of "Prerequisites". Like indeed also following the Fundamentals course. Or for example for the "Certified Application Developer" mainline certification, also following "Scripting in ServiceNow Fundamentals".
Prerequisites are not always mandatory, just sometimes they are. As example, in theory you can immediately go for the "ITSM Implementation" course to unlock the exam voucher. While that will be cheaper, it's up to you to decide if this is a smart thing to do. This will differ for everyone! For some programs you might want to follow the prerequisite Fundamentals course, while for some programs you might want to skip it. It really depends on your knowledge, how long you are already working within the ServiceNow eco-system, your hands-on experience, etcetera.
So do you need fo follow both Fundamentals and Implementation courses for a program? In most cases no.
Instructor-led courses include a voucher, On demand courses include an option to buy a voucher
Apart from free exam vouchers, one of the most asked questions on the ServiceNow community is if an exam voucher is included with a course or if you need to buy the exam voucher after following the course. Up to a few years ago there were only instructor led courses. Instructor led courses which always included the exam voucher. Up to this day, this is still the case. After successfully following the instructor led course, and if that is ofcourse the course which unlocks the exam voucher, you would receive the exam voucher for free by email shortly after finishing the course.
ServiceNow did work very hard on introducing "On demand" courses on Now Learning for the past few years. For several reasons they did so, though most obvious reasons are the flexibility of following courses and lower price of the courses. Important to realize, on demand courses don't include the exam voucher for free! On demand courses unlock the exam voucher, though after successfully following the on demand course, the exam voucher should get available on Now Learning as an option to buy.
On demand does not include voucher for free
(On demand courses themselves are free as of February 4, 2025)
It might take a few hours before the exam voucher gets visible within Now Learning. In case it doesn't, raise a personal case on Now Learning.
Pricing
The exact pricing to take a mainline exam can differ. Like already mentioned based on if one or more courses are mandatory, based on instructor led versus on demand courses, though also the length of instructor led courses. Just like licensing within ServiceNow, also course pricing insn't always clear 🙂.
A 2-Day instructor led course costs 1,900 USD.
A 3-Day instructor led course costs 2,700 USD.
Instructor led courses include a free exam voucher.
An on demand course costs 0 USD (yes free as of February 4, 2025).
On demand courses do not include a free exam voucher, rather you will get the option to buy an exam voucher for 300 USD for CSA/CAD/CAS exams and 450 USD for CIS exams.
If a retake of the exam is needed, you can buy a retake on Webassessor up to three times. Every retake costs 100 USD.
More retakes needed? You have to follow the course again.
As example, the costs for the CSA certification would be:
3-Day instructor led: 2,700 USD
- OR -
On demand: 300 USD + 0 USD = 300 USD
Ofcourse, there are some exceptions to this. You can for example also pay on Now Learning using Learning credits. When companies buy Learning credits in bulk, there tends to be a small discount, so using Learning credits could lower the price. Also the price can be lower for ServiceNow partners and depending on their partnership level (I don't know exact details at this moment since I'm not working for a partner anymore, though in the past this could go up to 50% discount).
Note: The prices mentioned here, do not include tax!
Free vouchers
Thé most often asked question on the ServiceNow community (apart from PDI issues) and one which has been answered thousands of times... free vouchers! Are there free vouchers? In general: no.
So why do people ask this question over and over and over and over again? Because its money! Because of the difference between instructor led courses and On demand courses which might not be instantly clear. Because ServiceNow did have a promotional activity in the past where for a short while for some programs free vouchers were offered.
Though in general, are there free exam vouchers? No.
No free vouchers
Ofcourse there are some exceptions. The most common exception is the one for ServiceNow partners. When you are working for a ServiceNow partner, the CSA exam voucher is free (after successfully following the ServiceNow Fundamentals course).
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That's it. Hope this clarifies some of the frequently asked questions regarding exam vouchers, courses, exam costs. If any questions or remarks, let me know!
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Kind regards,
Mark Roethof
Independent ServiceNow Consultant
9x ServiceNow MVP
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