Exam guide
How to Pass the AWS AIP-C01 in 2026: Format, Cost, Domains and Study Plan
Updated 9 Nov 2026 · 5 min read
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What the AWS AIP-C01 is and who it is for
The AIP-C01 is the exam behind the AWS Certified Generative AI Developer Professional certification. AWS describes it as intended for individuals who perform a generative AI developer role, and says it validates your ability to integrate foundation models (FMs) into applications and business workflows, and to put generative AI solutions into production using AWS technologies. AWS gives Amazon Bedrock as its example service when it describes the credential.
AWS sets a high bar for experience. The target candidate has 2 or more years of experience building production-grade applications on AWS or with open-source technologies, general AI/ML or data engineering experience, and 1 year of hands-on experience implementing generative AI solutions. No certification is required first, though AWS says the AI Practitioner, Solutions Architect Associate, Machine Learning Engineer Associate and Data Engineer Associate certifications can help.
The exam guide is just as clear about what is not tested. Model development and training, advanced ML techniques, and data engineering and feature engineering are listed as out of scope. This is an exam about building with models that already exist, not about creating them.
AWS AIP-C01 at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Exam code | AIP-C01 |
| Questions | 75, either multiple choice or multiple response. 65 are scored and 10 are unscored |
| Time allowed | 180 minutes |
| Passing score | 750 on a scaled score of 100 to 1,000 |
| Exam fee | US$300, with local currency prices on the AWS exam pricing page |
| Languages | English, Japanese, Korean and Simplified Chinese |
| Where you sit it | Pearson VUE testing centre or online proctored exam |
| Certification valid for | 3 years |
The unscored questions are not identified on the exam. AWS uses them to evaluate questions for future use. With 180 minutes for 75 questions you have about 2.4 minutes for each one.
What is on the exam
Foundation model integration, data management and compliance (31%). The heaviest domain and the broadest. It covers analysing requirements and designing generative AI solutions, selecting and configuring FMs, and building the data validation and processing pipelines that feed them. It also covers vector stores and the retrieval mechanisms for retrieval augmented generation (RAG), including chunking, embeddings and hybrid search, and prompt engineering with governance, such as managed prompt templates and approval workflows.
Implementation and integration (26%). Building agentic AI solutions and tool integrations, including multi-agent systems and the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It also covers model deployment strategies, enterprise integration architectures, FM API integrations such as streaming, retries and model routing, and the application patterns and developer tools around them.
AI safety, security and governance (20%). Input and output safety controls such as guardrails, accuracy checks that reduce hallucinations and defences against prompt injection. Then data security and privacy, including PII detection and network isolation, plus governance and compliance mechanisms like data lineage and audit logging, and responsible AI principles such as transparency and fairness evaluation.
Operational efficiency and optimisation for generative AI applications (12%). Cost and resource efficiency, including token efficiency, cost-aware model selection and caching. Performance optimisation covers latency, retrieval speed and throughput. Monitoring covers observability for token usage, response quality and tool calls.
Testing, validation and troubleshooting (11%). Evaluation systems for generative AI, including model evaluations, LLM-as-a-judge techniques, retrieval quality testing and agent performance. Troubleshooting covers context window overflow, integration errors, prompt problems and retrieval problems.
Why people fail it
The first problem is breadth. Each skill in the exam guide names several AWS services as examples, from Bedrock Knowledge Bases and Prompt Management to Step Functions, Lambda, OpenSearch Service and CloudWatch. Candidates who know Bedrock well but have never wired it into the surrounding services lose marks on the integration and operations questions.
The second is the multiple response format. These questions have five or more options with two or more correct, and you must select all the correct responses to receive credit. A half-right answer scores nothing. There is no penalty for guessing, so never leave a question blank, because unanswered questions are scored as incorrect.
The third is studying the wrong material. Because the exam excludes model training and feature engineering, time spent on those topics is time not spent on RAG design, agents and guardrails. And because the first two domains add up to 57% of the scored content, a weak spot in vector stores or agent design costs far more than a weak spot in evaluation.
A study plan that fits the exam
Seven weeks suits a developer who already builds on AWS and has some hands-on time with Bedrock. The plan gives the two heaviest domains four of the seven weeks.
- Week 1: solution design, FM selection and prompts. Design a solution against business and technical constraints, compare FMs, and practise prompt management and governance. End the week with the free AIP-C01 practice questions to find your gaps.
- Week 2: data pipelines, vector stores and retrieval. Build a small RAG pipeline. Try different chunking, embedding and search settings and see how relevance changes.
- Week 3: agents and tool integration. Build an agent that calls tools, add stopping conditions and human review, and expose a tool through MCP.
- Week 4: deployment and FM APIs. Compare on-demand and provisioned throughput, add streaming, retries and fallbacks, and route requests between models.
- Week 5: safety, security and governance. Configure guardrails, detect and mask PII, restrict access with IAM and VPC endpoints, and review audit and lineage options.
- Week 6: operations, evaluation and troubleshooting. Track token cost, add caching, set up monitoring, run a model evaluation and diagnose a bad retrieval result.
- Week 7: timed runs. Take the AWS Certification Official Practice Question Set and Official Practice Exam, then work through the questions-only copy in the AIP-C01 practice question pack in 180 minute blocks. Read the explanation for every miss.
On exam day
You schedule through your AWS Certification account and book with Pearson VUE, either at a testing centre or as an online proctored exam. You can reschedule up to 24 hours before the appointment, and you cannot cancel or reschedule inside that window. Cancelling less than 24 hours ahead, or failing to appear, forfeits your exam fee.
You have 180 minutes. If you take the exam in English and English is not your first language, AWS offers a 30 minute extension called ESL +30, which you request once in your account before you register. Most AWS exams do not show a pass or fail result at the end. Your results arrive in your AWS Certification account within five business days.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if I fail the AIP-C01?
You must wait 14 calendar days before you can retake it. AWS sets no limit on attempts, but you pay the full registration fee each time. After you pass, you cannot retake the same exam for two years.
How long does the certification last?
AWS says you must recertify every three years. To renew, you pass the latest version of the exam. AWS also lists this exam as one way to recertify the AWS Certified AI Practitioner.
Is the practice question pack enough on its own?
No. It is practice, not a course. The 136 questions with explanations show how the exam frames design choices and where your gaps are, but the AIP-C01 rewards hands-on time with Bedrock and the services around it. Build the pieces yourself, then use the questions to check your understanding and rehearse under time.
Does AWS publish its own practice material?
Yes. The AWS exam page lists an Official Practice Question Set, an Official Pretest and an Official Practice Exam. Use them alongside the questions here.
Try the free questions first, then get all 136 real exam questions for the AIP-C01 with full explanations for US$39, pass or your money back: get the AIP-C01 pack.
Sources
The official pages the facts in this guide were checked against.
- docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/ai-professional-01/ai-professional-01.html
- aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-generative-ai-developer-professional/
- aws.amazon.com/certification/faqs/
- aws.amazon.com/certification/recertification/
- docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/ai-professional-01/ai-professional-01-domain1.html
- docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/ai-professional-01/ai-professional-01-domain2.html
- docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/ai-professional-01/ai-professional-01-domain3.html
- docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/ai-professional-01/ai-professional-01-domain4.html
- docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/ai-professional-01/ai-professional-01-domain5.html
- aws.amazon.com/certification/policies/before-testing/
What people say about this pack
AIP-C01 passed! Happy with the result.
