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CompTIA Security+ exam cost in 2026: the real total

By SunTzu, founder of CertOwl • Published July 25, 2026 • Updated August 1, 2026 • 4 min read

A CompTIA Security+ voucher costs $439 in 2026. That buys one attempt at the SY0-701 exam, booked either at a Pearson VUE test center or online with a remote proctor watching. One exam, one certification, with no second paper the way the A+ demands.

The voucher is only the opening line of the bill. Depending on how you buy it, what you study with and whether you pass on the first try, the money that leaves your account can land anywhere between roughly $400 and $1,500. Below is where each piece of that goes.

The June 2026 increase

CompTIA moved its prices on June 1, 2026. Security+ went from $425 to $439, and the rest of the lineup shifted in the same round. Network+ settled at $399, which we broke down in the Network+ cost article.

This matters when you research. Plenty of pages still quote $392, $404 or $425, and most of them carry no date at all. If a price looks unusually low and the page will not tell you when it was written, treat it as stale.

A voucher is a code you redeem when booking your seat. It stays valid for roughly twelve months, with the exact expiry shown at purchase. Buy it when you are four to six weeks out from your target date, not on the day you start studying. An unused voucher that expires forgotten in a drawer is the least satisfying way to lose $439.

Where the price drops

Full price is optional. CompTIA sells through authorized training partners, and several of them list Security+ vouchers between $350 and $375 as standard pricing rather than as a flash sale. That is a saving of around fifteen percent for ten minutes of comparison shopping.

Two rules keep this safe. Buy only from sellers CompTIA lists as authorized partners, which a quick search on the seller name plus CompTIA partner will settle. And if you are enrolled in any kind of study program, check academic pricing before anything else, because CompTIA's academic store discounts vouchers for eligible students well below the public rate.

A failed attempt costs the whole thing again

There is no discounted retake. Fail, and your next attempt is another full voucher at the same price. CompTIA does not impose a wait before a second try, but from the third attempt onward you sit out fourteen days between bookings.

If you would rather not gamble, CompTIA sells a voucher plus retake bundle at around $474. Whether that extra $35 is money well spent depends entirely on how prepared you are. Someone finishing a structured course rarely needs it. Someone booking a date mainly to force themselves to study probably does. The retake rules themselves (no waiting period after a first fail, 14 days from the third attempt onward) are in our retake policy guide.

The cleaner way to avoid the question is simply not to book until your practice scores are consistently comfortable. Our piece on how hard Security+ really is covers what that looks like in practice.

Study materials are the widest gap in the bill

Budgets diverge most at this line. You can prepare for Security+ with a library book and free video courses for close to nothing. You can also spend over $1,000 on an official bundle that packages training, practice and a voucher together.

Neither extreme is automatically correct. What separates people who pass from people who repeat is not the price of their material but the number of practice questions they work through with the explanations read properly afterwards. Point your money at question banks and at genuinely understanding the exam objectives, which we mapped out in the SY0-701 guide.

The bill does not end on exam day

Security+ expires after three years. Keeping it current means fifty continuing education units plus a CE fee of $50 per year, so $150 across the cycle.

There are routes around that fee. Passing a higher CompTIA certification renews everything beneath it automatically, and CertMaster CE carries its own price but satisfies the requirement in one go. Most certified people collect their CEUs from training they were doing anyway and simply pay the annual fee.

A realistic total

Shop carefully, study on inexpensive material and pass first time, and you land near $400 all in. Pay list price, buy an official bundle and need a second attempt, and you sail past $1,200. The largest single lever is not the voucher price at all. It is whether you sit the exam once or twice.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a legitimate way to pay less?

Yes: CompTIA authorized resellers sell below list, and the academic store discounts vouchers for eligible students.

What if I fail the exam?

The next attempt costs the full voucher price. There is no discounted retake unless you bought the bundle up front.

Do costs continue after I pass?

Yes. Security+ renews on a three year cycle and CompTIA charges continuing education fees, so budget beyond exam day.