Updated 1 Nov 2026 · 6 min read
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What the IAPP AIGP is and who it is for
The AIGP, Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional, is the IAPP's AI governance certification. The IAPP says it shows competency in AI development, the ability to deploy AI ethically and the ability to use best practices in AI management to ensure safety and trust.
The AIGP suits privacy, legal, risk, compliance and product people who have to put rules around AI systems their organisation builds or buys. You need to know what a model card or red teaming is for and who owns each decision, not how to build a model.
The exam follows version 2.1 of the AIGP Body of Knowledge, effective from 2 February 2026. The IAPP reviews the AIGP body of knowledge every year and says it announces exam updates at least 90 days before the new content appears, so check the AIGP page for a newer version before you book.
IAPP AIGP at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Exam code | AIGP |
| Questions | 100 multiple choice questions, some with more than one correct answer and some based on a scenario |
| Time allowed | 2.75 hours, with an optional 15 minute break halfway through |
| Passing score | 300 on a scale of 100 to 500 |
| Exam fee | US$799 for non-members, US$649 for IAPP members |
| Languages | English |
| Where you sit it | Pearson VUE, at a test centre or online through OnVUE |
| Certification valid for | A two year term, kept with 20 continuing education credits and a maintenance fee or IAPP membership |
You must schedule and sit the exam within one year of buying it, or the fee is forfeited.
What is on the exam
The IAPP does not give percentage weights. Its exam blueprint gives a minimum and maximum number of questions for each domain instead, which works out at 16 to 20 of the 100 questions for Domain I, 19 to 23 for Domain II and 21 to 25 each for Domains III and IV.
Domain I: Understanding the foundations of AI governance (16 to 20 questions). What AI is and why it needs governance: the accepted definitions and types of AI, the risks and harms it poses, and the traits that make it hard to govern, such as opacity, autonomy, scale and probabilistic outputs. It covers responsible AI principles, roles and responsibilities, training and awareness, the difference between developers, providers, deployers and users, and policies for every stage of the AI life cycle, including third party risk.
Domain II: Understanding how laws, standards and frameworks apply to AI (19 to 23 questions). First, how existing law applies: privacy rules such as lawful basis, data minimisation, impact assessments and automated decision making, then intellectual property, nondiscrimination, consumer protection and product liability. Then the AI specific laws, with the EU AI Act and the South Korean AI Basic Law named as examples: risk classes, obligations for high risk systems, general purpose AI models, penalties and the different roles of providers, deployers, importers and distributors. It ends with the OECD principles, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and ISO 22989, 42001 and 42005.
Domain III: Understanding how to govern AI development (21 to 25 questions). Governance while you design, build, train and test a system: defining the use case, impact assessments, risk tools such as a probability and severity harms matrix, data governance, lineage and provenance, and the types of testing from unit tests to bias and interpretability. The release stage covers readiness, model cards, conformity requirements, monitoring, incident management and public disclosures.
Domain IV: Understanding how to govern AI deployment and use (21 to 25 questions). The deployer's view. You weigh model types (classic or generative, proprietary or open source, small or large) and deployment options such as cloud, on premise, edge, fine tuning, retrieval augmented generation and agentic architectures. Then come vendor and licensing terms, the extra liability of deploying your own model, ongoing monitoring, audits and red teaming, downstream harms and a policy to deactivate a system when needed.
Why people fail it
The first trap is the law domain. Candidates from a privacy background know data protection well, then lose marks on the EU AI Act detail: which risk class a system falls into, what a provider owes compared with a deployer, and what applies to general purpose AI models.
The second is the overlap between Domains III and IV. Both mention impact assessments, monitoring, red teaming and incident documentation, but one asks about a team building its own system and the other about an organisation choosing and running one. Many questions turn on that point of view, so read each scenario for who is acting before you look at the options.
The third is the format. The exam is split into two halves, and once you submit the first half you cannot go back to it. Multi select questions give no partial credit, so you must pick exactly the number of answers asked for.
A study plan that fits the exam
Seven weeks suits most people with some privacy or risk background. Domains II, III and IV each have a higher question range than Domain I, so they get the most time, with the final week kept for timed practice.
- Week 1: foundations. Work through Domain I of the body of knowledge: definitions, risks and harms, responsible AI principles, roles and policies across the life cycle. Then take the free AIGP practice questions to see where you stand.
- Week 2: existing law. Privacy law applied to AI, then intellectual property, nondiscrimination, consumer protection and product liability.
- Week 3: AI specific law and standards. The EU AI Act risk classes and obligations by role, general purpose AI models and penalties, then the OECD principles, the NIST AI RMF core functions and the three named ISO standards.
- Week 4: governing development. Use cases, impact assessments, harms matrices, data governance and the testing types in Domain III.
- Week 5: release and monitoring. Readiness, model cards, conformity, incident management and disclosures. Compare each with its Domain IV counterpart.
- Week 6: governing deployment. Model types, deployment options, vendor and licensing terms, monitoring, downstream harms and deactivation policies.
- Week 7: timed runs. Work through the questions-only copy in the AIGP practice question pack in two timed halves of 50 questions and about 82 minutes each and read the explanation for every miss.
The IAPP recommends at least 30 hours of study and offers a free AIGP study guide.
On exam day
You buy the exam in the IAPP store and schedule it through Pearson VUE from your MyIAPP account, at least 24 hours ahead. For a test centre, the IAPP asks you to arrive 15 minutes early. For an online OnVUE exam, check in opens 30 minutes before your appointment, and your microphone, webcam and internet speed are checked first.
You have 2.75 hours for 100 questions. Halfway through you are offered a 15 minute break. Each half holds half the questions and half the time, and you must submit the first half before you move on, whether or not you take the break.
Your Pass or Fail result and your score appear on screen when you finish. You also get a breakdown of your performance by domain.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if I fail the AIGP?
You buy a new exam once your result shows in your MyIAPP profile, and the IAPP gives a discounted price for a retake of the same certification. You cannot book the new attempt for a date sooner than seven days after the last one. Use the domain breakdown in your score report to plan the next round.
Is the practice question pack enough on its own?
No. It is practice, not a course. The 222 questions with explanations show how the IAPP frames governance scenarios and where your gaps are, but they do not replace reading the body of knowledge and the laws and frameworks it names. Learn the material first, then use the questions to test yourself under time.
How do I keep the certification?
The certification term is two years, starting the day after you pass. To keep it, you submit 20 continuing education credits linked to the AIGP body of knowledge and either pay the US$250 certification maintenance fee or hold IAPP membership, which costs US$295 a year.
Try the free questions first, then get all 222 AIGP practice questions with full explanations: get the AIGP pack.
Sources
The official pages the facts in this guide were checked against.
- iapp.org/certify/aigp/
- assets.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltd4dd5b2d705252bc/blt0d33152fd20bc134/AIGP_Cert%20BOK.pdf
- iapp.org/certify/faqs
- store.iapp.org/aigp-exam/
- assets.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltd4dd5b2d705252bc/blteb8b5d531fd78971/IAPP-Certification_Handbook.pdf
- iapp.org/certify/certification-process
- iapp.org/l/aigp-study-guide-request
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