Thirteen certifications, different levels and specialisations. Below: what each one is for, who it fits, and what the path to it looks like.
A certification is proof that your experience matches a standard recognised worldwide. It does not replace practice, but it puts your knowledge in order and gives employers a common language for assessing candidates.
Source: a social media post by Pierre Le Manh, PMI President and CEO, figures as of 30 June 2026.
Five questions about your experience and the way you work. The answer names the certification that fits you now, what comes after it, and which neighbouring paths exist outside PMI.
PMP is the most widely held certification in the profession and the one most often asked about. The path consists of five steps.
With a four-year degree: 36 months of leading projects plus 35 contact hours of project management training. With a secondary education diploma: 60 months of leading projects plus the same 35 hours. Holding a CAPM can substitute for the training hours.
The hours are earned with a PMI Authorized Training Partner. An ATP works from materials produced by PMI itself and issues the certificate of completion that PMI accepts without further questions.
In the application you describe each project: your role, the period, and what you were responsible for. Applications are subject to random audit, so keep contacts of people who can confirm your experience.
180 questions in 240 minutes at a Pearson VUE centre or online under proctoring. Since 9 July 2026 the domains are weighted People 33%, Process 41% and Business Environment 26%, and the exam includes case-based questions and questions built around charts and diagrams.
The certification is valid for three years. To renew it you collect 60 PDUs, of which at least 35 come from education, report them in the CCRS portal and pay the renewal fee.
| Your situation | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Student or no project experience yet | CAPM |
| Three or more years leading projects | PMP |
| You run several related projects at once | PgMP |
| You decide which projects the company takes on | PfMP |
| You work in construction and capital projects | PMI-CP |
| You lead artificial intelligence projects | CPMAI |
| You want to deepen a specific area | PMI-ACP, PMI-RMP, PMI-SP, PMI-PBA |
Entry level
For those starting out: students, analysts, team members who want to move into project work. Experience in leading projects is not required, but training is. It is the natural first step towards the PMP and it also covers the training-hours requirement for it.
Requirements: Secondary education and 23 hours of project management training. PMI page
The profession's main certification
For practising project managers with several years of experience. It covers predictive, agile and hybrid approaches: today roughly half the exam is about flexible ways of working. This is the certification employers name in vacancies most often.
Requirements: Higher education and 36 months of leading projects, or secondary education and 60 months, plus 35 contact hours of training. A valid CAPM replaces the training hours. PMI page
Programme level
A programme is a group of related projects managed together because the benefit appears only from their combination. PgMP is for those who coordinate such groups: they manage dependencies between projects, shared resources and the benefits, not the schedule of a single project. The application goes through a panel review by practitioners.
Requirements: Higher education, at least 6 000 hours of project management and 6 000 hours of programme management. The exam has two stages: a panel review of the application and a test of 170 questions. PMI page
Portfolio level
A portfolio is everything the organisation is doing and considering. The question here is not how to deliver a project but which projects to take on at all and which to stop. PfMP is for those who align the set of initiatives with strategy and distribute funding between them.
Requirements: At least 96 months of professional experience over the last 15 years, higher education and at least 48 months of portfolio management. The exam has a panel review and a test of 170 questions. PMI page
Specialisation: flexible approaches
Covers not one framework but the whole family: Scrum, Kanban, Lean, XP. It suits those who work in flexible approaches in practice and want a certification that is not tied to a single method.
Requirements: 12 months of project experience over the last five years — a valid PMP or PgMP covers this — and 8 months of work with agile approaches over the last three. PMI page
Specialisation: risk
For those responsible for risk in large and complex projects: identification, quantitative analysis, response planning and monitoring. In demand in the oil and gas sector, construction and infrastructure, where the cost of a missed risk is measured in months and budgets.
Requirements: 24 months of project risk management over the last five years and 30 hours of risk management training. PMI page
Specialisation: schedule
For planners who build and maintain schedules for large projects: critical path, resource levelling, schedule analysis and forecasting. A separate profession in capital construction and EPC contracts.
Requirements: 28 months of project scheduling over the last five years and 30 hours of scheduling training. PMI page
Specialisation: requirements
About working with requirements: eliciting them from stakeholders, documenting, tracing to the solution and validating. For business analysts and for project managers who write requirements themselves.
Requirements: 4 500 hours of business analysis experience on projects and 35 contact hours of business analysis training. PMI page
Industry: construction
Built specifically for construction and capital projects: contracts, claims, interaction between contractor and client, risk in the built environment. Relevant where a project is not software but a physical object with its own regulation.
Industry: artificial intelligence
AI and machine learning projects fail for their own reasons: data turns out unsuitable, the model works in the lab and not in production, and the value is impossible to measure. CPMAI is built around a methodology for such projects, where work goes in iterations around data rather than around features.
Specialisation: project office
For those who build and run a project office: what services the PMO provides, how it proves its own value and how it stops being paperwork for the sake of paperwork.
Specialisation: sustainability
About accounting for environmental and social consequences in project decisions: how sustainability requirements get into the scope, the schedule and the budget instead of remaining a declaration in the annual report.
For school and university students
The first acquaintance with the profession: basic concepts, teamwork, planning. It gives no professional status but shows what the work of a project manager consists of.
PMI charges two prices for every exam: one for members, one for everyone else. The difference usually exceeds the annual membership fee, so membership pays for itself with the first attempt — and a retake costs less as well.
| Certification | PMI member | Non-member |
|---|---|---|
| CAPM | 225 $ | 300 $ |
| PMP | 405 $ | 555 $ |
| PgMP | 800 $ | 1 000 $ |
| PMI-ACP | 435 $ | 495 $ |
| PMI-RMP | 520 $ | 670 $ |
Prices are given for reference: they are taken from the chapter's earlier publication and PMI has changed them since. Check the current fee on the certification page at pmi.org/certifications. The exam fee is paid to PMI directly and is not part of any course price.
No. Experience of leading projects is a formal requirement and applications are audited. Without the required months, start with the CAPM.
The exam fee is lower for PMI members than for non-members, and the same applies to renewal. Membership is bought on pmi.org; joining a local chapter is a separate step.
The exam is delivered in English with a language aid available for a number of languages, including Russian: the question is shown in both languages at once. The current list is published by PMI.
It moves into a suspended state and then expires. After that the status is regained only by taking the exam again, so it is easier to collect PDUs gradually through the three years than to remember about them in the last month.
Certification requirements, exam format and renewal rules — official PMI publications: the certification handbook and the PMP Exam Content Outline effective from 9 July 2026. Membership and certification figures — a social media post by Pierre Le Manh, PMI President and CEO, as of 30 June 2026.
The page is for information only. Requirements, fees and exam format are set by PMI and may change: check the current terms on pmi.org before applying. Project Management Institute, PMI, PMP and related marks belong to their owners.
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