Like most other professional certifications, obtaining any certification from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) comes with some monetary costs.
There are at least four different fees associated with obtaining and maintaining IAPP certification, regardless of whether you seek to obtain a CIPP/US, CIPP/E, CIPM, or CIPT certification. These include: (1) exam fees; (2) IAPP membership fees (or certification renewal fees); (3) training fees; and (4) Continuing Privacy Education (CPE) fees. All of the fees identified below are in $USD.
The Exam Fee
IAPP administers its exams through Pearson Vue. If this is your first certification through IAPP, then your exam fee will be $550. This fee is discounted to $375 if you are retaking an exam or if you already have a different IAPP certification.
IAPP Annual Membership Fee
An annual membership to IAPP costs either $295 (Professional Membership), $110 (Not-For-Profit Membership, Higher Education Membership, Government Membership), $100 (Retired Membership), or $50 (Student Membership), depending on your status.
Almost everyone that obtains IAPP certification is also an IAPP “member.” Membership imparts many important benefits. Among them, IAPP members are exempt from having to pay a $250 “certification maintenance fee.” In other words, to retain your certification, you must pay $250, but this fee is waived for IAPP members. So, joining as an IAPP member to take advantage of this waiver and all the other benefits of membership is a no-brainer.
Training Course Fees
Regardless of what professional experience you have, there are almost certainly areas tested on the CIPP/US, CIPP/E and CIPM exams in which you will have little or no first-hand knowledge. It is certainly possible to compile all the necessary information covered by the exam, review all the primary source materials, and separate out what is important from what isn’t. But that would take months of hard work—and trust us, we know!
For this reason, and many others, most professionals find it important to take some type of training course to prepare for their IAPP certification exam.
What is the Price of a Privacy Bootcamp Course?
We offer each of our courses for $499. Each of our privacy and data protection training courses is intended to be a comprehensive, all-in-one test preparation course. No outside resources are needed to effectively prepare for your exam. This way, you don’t need to worry about any hidden fees.
How Does That Compare to the Price of Other Courses?
One of our founding principles is to make IAPP certification test prep affordable for all professionals. Most of the other course providers you will find online offer trainings that range anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000. Our courses are a fraction of that.
Continuing Privacy Education Fees
The final cost of maintaining IAPP certification are those associated with earning Continuing Privacy Education (CPE) credits.
Every two years, you must complete CPE requirements to maintain your certification(s). The IAPP requires 20 hours of CPE credits per certification. You can earn CPE credits through numerous activities. Some of these activities, such as attending conferences, may have fees (and sometimes substantial fees) associated with them.
The good news is that most trainings are valid for multiple certifications. This means that you can set it up such that you only need 20 credits for all certifications that you hold.
The better news, however, is that there are many free CPE resources available. Indeed, the IAPP has many free opportunities to earn CPE credits directly on its website. Visit the CPE Central page and search by "Free" to view them. You can also find out more about CPE requirements here.
- Learn more about CPE requirements in our article: “Continuing Privacy Education (CPE) Requirements”
