Updated 1 Nov 2026 · 5 min read
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What the Microsoft AI-901 is and who it is for
The AI-901, Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals, is the exam behind the Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals certification. Microsoft pitches it at people at the beginning of their career in AI solution development, with conceptual knowledge of AI solutions in Azure and the foundational technical skills to work with them. It also expects Python coding syntax and familiarity with Azure resources.
That last part matters, because the AI-901 is not the old concepts-only exam. It replaced the AI-900, which Microsoft retired on 30 June 2026, and the current skills measured date from 15 April 2026. The certification name stayed the same, but more than half of the exam is now about building small working solutions with Microsoft Foundry. It suits developers and technical people who want a first Microsoft AI credential. Fundamentals certifications do not expire, so there is no renewal to keep up with.
Microsoft AI-901 at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Exam code | AI-901 |
| Questions | Not published for this exam. Microsoft says most of its exams have 40 to 60 and the number varies |
| Time allowed | 45 minutes (Microsoft's Fundamentals exam duration), 65 minutes of seat time |
| Passing score | 700 out of 1000, scaled |
| Exam fee | US$99 in the US, priced by country or region elsewhere |
| Languages | English, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian and Spanish |
| Where you sit it | Pearson VUE, online proctored or at a test centre |
| Certification valid for | Does not expire |
What is on the exam
Identify AI concepts and capabilities (40 to 45%). The part AI-900 veterans will recognise. It starts with the six responsible AI principles (fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, accountability), and you need to know the considerations behind each one. Then models: how generative AI works, choosing a model by capability, and deployment options and configuration parameters. Finally, workload recognition: telling generative and agentic AI apart from text analysis, speech, computer vision and information extraction, down to keyword extraction versus entity detection, sentiment versus summarisation, and speech recognition versus synthesis.
Implement AI solutions by using Microsoft Foundry (55 to 60%). The larger domain, and the new one. It covers writing system and user prompts, deploying a model and chatting with it in the Foundry portal, building a lightweight chat client with the Foundry SDK, and creating and testing a single agent plus a small client for it. The same pattern then repeats per workload: an app with text analysis, spoken prompts to a multimodal model, Azure Speech in Foundry Tools, image input and image generation, and extracting information from documents, forms, images, audio and video with Azure Content Understanding. Microsoft says you should be familiar with REST APIs, SDKs and CLIs.
Why people fail it
The biggest trap is studying for the wrong exam. A lot of Azure AI Fundamentals material was written for the AI-900, which tested knowledge of AI concepts and did not require data science or software engineering experience. It covers the principles and workload definitions well, then stops. On the AI-901 those topics are at most 45% of the marks, and candidates who prepared from an AI-900 course hit a wall on the Foundry half.
Microsoft's own pages add to the confusion. The one line summary on the exam page still lists machine learning principles and the older workloads, which is AI-900 wording. Plan from the study guide's skills measured list instead.
The second problem is that the Foundry objectives are practical. Expect to be asked which step comes next when deploying a model, what a system prompt should contain, which Foundry tool extracts fields from a scanned form, or what a few lines of Python client code are doing. If you have only read about Foundry, every option looks plausible.
The third is time. 45 minutes is short. Microsoft does not say in advance which question types an exam uses, but its exam sandbox demonstrates formats beyond plain multiple choice, and items that ask you to order deployment steps or match tools to scenarios take longer than a single pick. Slow readers run out of clock.
A study plan that fits the exam
Six weeks suits most people with some Python and a little Azure. The split follows the weights: two weeks on concepts, three on Foundry and a final week of timed practice.
- Week 1: responsible AI and models. Learn the six principles with an example of each, then how generative models work, how to choose one by capability and which deployment settings matter. End the week with the free AI-901 practice questions.
- Week 2: AI workloads. Generative and agentic AI, text analysis techniques, speech recognition and synthesis, computer vision and image generation, and information extraction. Practise naming the workload from a short scenario.
- Week 3: generative AI apps and agents in Foundry. Create a Foundry project, deploy a model, test prompts in the portal, then call it from a short Python chat client with the Foundry SDK. Build and test a single agent.
- Week 4: text, speech and vision. Add text analysis to a small app, use Azure Speech in Foundry Tools, send spoken and image prompts to a multimodal model and generate an image.
- Week 5: information extraction. Use Content Understanding on a document, a form, an image and an audio or video file, then wrap one of them in a lightweight app.
- Week 6: timed runs. Work through the questions-only copy in the AI-901 practice question pack in 45 minute blocks, then read the explanations for every miss, including the drag-and-drop and hotspot items.
On exam day
You book through Pearson VUE from the exam page and choose between online proctoring and a test centre. For an online sitting, run the system pre-check well before the day, make sure your room is walled with a closed door, and check that the name on your Microsoft Certification profile exactly matches your government-issued ID.
Microsoft gives Fundamentals exams 45 minutes of exam time and recommends allowing 65 minutes of seat time for instructions and the candidate agreement. You can take unscheduled breaks, but the clock keeps running, and once you start a break you cannot go back to questions you have already seen. Unlike associate exams, Fundamentals exams give you no access to Microsoft Learn during the test.
If the exam is not available in your preferred language, you can request an additional 30 minutes. The score is scaled from 1 to 1,000 and 700 passes, which may not equal 70% of the points. There is no penalty for guessing, so answer every item.
Frequently asked questions
Is the practice question pack enough on its own?
It is practice, not a course. The 158 questions, a mix of multiple choice, hotspot and drag-and-drop with explanations, show you how the objectives are tested and where your gaps are. They do not replace hands-on time in Foundry. Build the small apps yourself, then use the pack to check it stuck and to rehearse under time.
What happens if I fail the AI-901?
You can retake it. Microsoft makes you wait 24 hours after a first fail, then 14 days between later attempts, with a maximum of five attempts in 12 months from your first. You pay for each retake, and in the US that is US$99 a time.
I already passed the AI-900. Do I need the AI-901?
No. You earned Azure AI Fundamentals through the AI-900, and Fundamentals certifications do not expire. The AI-901 is now the route for anyone earning the certification after the AI-900 retired on 30 June 2026.
Try the free questions, then get all 158 AI-901 practice questions with full explanations for US$39, pass or your money back: get the AI-901 pack.
Sources
The official pages the facts in this guide were checked against.
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/exams/ai-901/
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/azure-ai-fundamentals/
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/exams/ai-900/
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/resources/study-guides/ai-901
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/support/exam-duration-exam-experience
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/exam-scoring-reports
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/exam-pricing.json
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/register-schedule-exam
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/online-exams
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/renew-your-microsoft-certification
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/support/retake-policy
What people say about this pack
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