Microsoft Applied Skills
Issued by Microsoft. Below is what it costs, how long it lasts, and what it actually signals — with the date we checked.
Microsoft Applied Skills
Microsoft · Applied Skills scenarios (incl. AI agents on Azure AI Foundry)
Free to learn · free certificate Recognized
| Cost | Free Free. Not a trial, not a discount — there is no fee. |
|---|---|
| Validity | No expiry documented. |
| Renewal | None documented. |
| Assessment | Performance-assessed lab — you do the task in a live environment rather than answer questions about it |
| Proctored | No |
| Verify via | Credly |
| Cost per active year | $0free to earn and nothing to renew, so there is no per-year cost at all |
Narrow, scenario-specific credentials that sit below Microsoft's certifications but are assessed by doing rather than by recall.
THE BEST VALUE IN THIS ENTIRE MATRIX on cost alone: free to earn, nothing to renew, and assessed by performing a task rather than answering questions — which is a stronger signal than most paid multiple-choice exams. It is also narrow: an Applied Skill attests one scenario, not a role. Do not present it as equivalent to a full certification, and note our taxonomy explicitly forbids promoting it to one.
Verified 2026-07-26 · Official page
How we know
Carried from the verified vendor-matrix row (live fetch 2026-07-25, page re-fetched 2026-07-26). Recorded there as free, performance-assessed in a lab, unproctored, Credly-issued, with no documented renewal.
Last verified 2026-07-26 · https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/applied-skills/
Free preparation
Free resources first. Everything below is free to use; the exam itself is the paid part.
Machine Learning Systems Design (Chip Huyen)
Free to learn · no certificate
Free online book on designing ML systems as products — project setup, data, framing and iteration. Link goes to the substantive chapter rather than the table of contents, which is only a few hundred words.
Verified 2026-07-26
Ragas — evaluating RAG and LLM application quality
Free to learn · no certificate
Open-source evaluation framework. This is the part of the job that separates a demo from a product: deciding what "good" means and measuring it. Free and open source; note the /en/stable/ path.
Verified 2026-07-26
Guardrails AI documentation
Free to learn · no certificate
Framework for validating and constraining LLM output in production. Docs are free to read; the vendor also sells a commercial platform, so treat the docs as the free part rather than the whole offering.
Verified 2026-07-26
CS50's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python (Harvard)
Free to learn · paid certificate
Harvard's AI course, published as OpenCourseWare — the lectures, problem sets and materials are free. The certificate is NOT: the page points you to a verified certificate, a professional certificate, or transfer credit, all of which are separate paid options via edX. Free to learn, paid to certify.
Verified 2026-07-26
Microsoft Learn — training for AI engineers
Free to learn · no certificate
Free structured learning paths that also prepare you for the free Applied Skills assessments below. No cost to read or complete.
Verified 2026-07-26
Anthropic's educational courses (open source)
Free to learn · no certificate
API fundamentals, prompt engineering and evaluation, openly licensed on GitHub. Free; no certificate.
Verified 2026-07-26
Used by these roles
- AI Product Engineer — You own whether an AI feature is actually good for the people using it — not just whether it runs.
- AI Software Engineer — You are a software engineer who builds features on top of AI models — the AI is a component, not the product.