IEEE CertifAIEd, run by the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA), is two separate things under one name: a certification for AI products and a certification for people. As of November 15, 2026, the individual credential costs $499 for IEEE members or $649 for nonmembers in certificate and exam fees, plus a required prep course, and it lasts three years before renewal.

Products and people are certified separately

IEEE SA's program page lists three routes. Professional Certification is for individuals. Product Certification is for organizations that want an AI-enabled product, which IEEE calls an autonomous intelligent system (AIS), evaluated. Curriculum Licensing lets universities and training firms teach the IEEE course material to their own learners.

On the product side, an organization's development team works with IEEE authorized assessors, who evaluate the system against IEEE's ethical criteria. A product that passes receives a certificate and the right to display the CertifAIEd mark. IEEE publishes a product registry on the same page. On November 15, 2026, it listed two entries: a Digicust GmbH document-processing product tied to the City of Vienna, certified November 2, 2024, and an LG ThinQ ON model, certified July 25, 2025.

A professional credential certifies a person, not any product, and a certified product says nothing about the people who built it.

The four criteria suites

Every track is built on the same four areas, which IEEE SA lists as transparency, accountability, algorithmic bias and privacy. In IEEE's framing, these cover explainable design choices, human oversight of outcomes, unfair or harmful outputs, and protection of personal data. IEEE calls the detailed requirement sets under each area criteria suites.

How an individual earns the professional credential

IEEE SA's professional certification page lays out six steps:

  • Submit an application with your work history for verification. IEEE asks for at least one year of professional experience using AI in business processes or work functions.
  • Choose a training format: virtual, in person or self study.
  • Complete the course and pass the exam.
  • Receive a certification valid for three years.
  • Optionally add microcredential courses.
  • Renew after three years.

The course covers responsible AI, global ethics initiatives, ethics profiling, the four criteria and the IEEE AI ethics framework and methodology. IEEE describes the virtual course as a 3.5-day program delivered by outside training partners. The published schedule, running from November 16, 2026 into late 2027, lists ZealStrat LLC and Verdas AI.

Fees on the page are in two parts, and both are required. The certificate and exam fee is $499 for IEEE members and $649 for nonmembers. The self-study prep course is $699 for members and $799 for nonmembers. The virtual prep course is priced by the training partner, not by IEEE. A re-exam costs $299 for anyone. The page does not list a renewal fee or say what renewal requires, so ask IEEE SA directly before your three years run out.

The assessor path

Assessing products is a further step. The Practical Assessment Master Class is open to people who passed the professional course and exam, or who already hold an older CertifAIEd assessor or lead assessor credential. It is a virtual partner-led course costing $1,995. Participants run a mock assessment, taking the roles of lead assessor and subject matter expert: they scope a concept of operations, run a values elicitation session, sort the results into the criteria suites and build the document IEEE calls the Case for Ethics. Completing it earns the Lead Assessor Credential.

Lead assessors can then join the Assessment Licensing and Product Registry Program, which carries an annual license fee of $999 for new lead assessors. Each assessed product is listed for $499 a year, paid by the company whose product was assessed. IEEE states plainly that these licensed assessments do not meet the requirements of full product certification. A company can later pursue full certification for the product.

Assessors credentialed under the earlier program have until June 2027 to finish the master class to qualify for six months of free use of the assessed-by logo, according to IEEE.

The microcredentials

The IEEE CertifAIEd Professional Series is a set of stackable microcredentials open only to people who already hold the professional certificate. Each one applies the four criteria to a narrower field and adds a digital badge to the core credential. Current titles include generative AI risk mapping, agentic AI governance, human resources and financial services.

Where IEEE 7000 fits

IEEE 7000-2021 is a published standard, not a certification. It sets out a model process for building ethical values into system design: eliciting and prioritizing values with stakeholders, then tracing them through the concept of operations, ethical requirements and risk-based design. The IEEE SA Standards Board approved it June 16, 2021, and it was published September 15, 2021. It is active, and a joint IEEE/ISO/IEC version was issued as 24748-7000-2022. The PDF is free through the IEEE GET Program.

The CertifAIEd assessor training uses the same building blocks the standard describes, including the concept of operations and values elicitation. IEEE ties the standard most directly to a separate course, Ethics for AI System Design, which ends in a proctored assessment and a digital certificate and badge. That course is a distinct credential from the CertifAIEd professional certification.

What to check next

Before you apply, confirm the current fees and the training dates on IEEE SA's professional certification page, since the virtual course price is set by the partner you choose. If you need to know whether a product is certified, look it up in the registry on the product certification page, and check whether a listing is full certification or a licensed assessment.

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