Free and discounted Microsoft exam vouchers: student pricing, Exam Replay and the Azure exams that retired in 2026

What a Microsoft exam costs before any discount

Microsoft prices exams by the country or region where you sit them, so there is no single global price. In the US, role-based exams such as AZ-104 cost $165 and fundamentals exams such as AZ-900 and SC-900 cost $99. The same pricing data on Microsoft Learn shows AZ-104 at £106 in the UK and ₹4,865 in India, and AZ-900 at £64 and ₹3,691. Open the exam page, choose your country in the price box and read your own figure before you budget.

The cost that hurts is the second attempt. Microsoft's retake policy says you must pay to retake, wait 24 hours after a first failure and 14 days between later attempts, and sit a given exam no more than five times in 12 months. Fail AZ-104 once and the certificate has cost you $330. The AZ-104 retake guide covers what to change before attempt two, and paying for a retake covers where the money can come from.

The good news on cost comes after you pass. Microsoft's AZ-104 page says role-based certifications expire unless renewed, with a renewal frequency of 12 months, and that you renew at no cost by passing an online assessment on Microsoft Learn. Pay for the exam once and the credential is free to keep. AZ-104 jobs covers the roles it leads to.

Virtual Training Days: what happened to the free voucher

Microsoft Virtual Training Days were online events, and older registration pages for Azure Fundamentals sessions in 2023 and January 2024 still sit on info.microsoft.com. Those dates have passed. On 2 November 2026, microsoft.com/en-us/trainingdays forwarded to Microsoft's general events page, which listed Microsoft Ignite, Discovery Sessions, In a Day Workshops and industry events, and did not list Virtual Training Days.

We could not find a current Virtual Training Day or a Microsoft page stating its voucher terms, so we are not quoting a discount for one. If a blog promises a free or 50% off voucher from a Virtual Training Day, check for a registration page on a microsoft.com domain with a date in the future before you plan around it.

Microsoft Ignite runs from 17 to 20 November 2026 in San Francisco. Its home page did not mention a certification exam offer when we checked. If Microsoft announces one, the terms will be on a Microsoft page, and that is the only place to trust them.

What to do instead: book on your own timetable and use the offers in the next two sections.

Exam Replay and student pricing

Exam Replay is Microsoft's retake bundle, sold with Pearson VUE. Microsoft's offers page says it includes one exam voucher and one retake of the same exam. You must schedule and sit both within 12 months of purchase, the retake opens only after you fail the first attempt, and online exams are allowed.

On 2 November 2026 Pearson VUE's MindHub store listed Exam Replay at $330, on sale for $230. MindHub's terms say it covers all Microsoft certification exams except MTA, MOS, transition, fundamentals and beta exams. That rules it out for AZ-900 and SC-900. It does cover AZ-104.

Run the numbers for AZ-104. Exam Replay costs $65 more than a single $165 attempt. If you then fail, the retake is already paid for and you have saved $100 against paying $165 twice. Buy it when your practice assessment scores are borderline, and skip it if you are passing them comfortably.

Two more terms from MindHub matter. The voucher is non-refundable and expires 12 months after purchase. It is not tied to an exam until you redeem it, so if the exam you planned for is retired, you can still use the voucher on a different role-based exam.

Microsoft says it offers academic pricing on certification exams in most countries and regions, with India and China excluded. To get it, open your Microsoft Learn profile, complete the interest survey, choose Career Paths and then Student, and verify your academic status. Once verified, the discount appears when you register for an exam. Microsoft's student page does not publish the discounted amount, so check it at checkout before you pay.

Azure exams Microsoft retired in 2026

Before you buy any voucher or course, check that the exam still exists. Microsoft's exam retirement page lists these as retired in 2026, and says retired exams can no longer be taken:

• AI-102 (Azure AI Engineer Associate): retired 30 June 2026.
• AI-900 (Azure AI Fundamentals): retired 30 June 2026.
• DP-100 (Azure Data Scientist Associate): retired 1 June 2026.
• AZ-204 (Azure Developer Associate): retired 31 July 2026.
• AZ-500 (Azure Security Engineer Associate): retired 31 August 2026.
• AZ-800 and AZ-801 (Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate): retired 30 September 2026.

The certification pages agree. Microsoft's Azure Security Engineer page says the certification, exam and renewal assessments were retired on 31 August 2026 and can no longer be earned or renewed. The Azure Developer and Azure AI Engineer pages both say the certification and the renewal assessment are retired. Our own exam pages for AZ-204, AI-102 and AZ-500 are reference material now.

One exam is next. Microsoft lists MS-102 (Microsoft 365 Certified: Administrator Expert) as scheduled to retire on 30 November 2026. If you are preparing for it, both your first attempt and any retake must happen before that date.

AZ-104, AZ-900 and SC-900 do not appear on the retirement list. Microsoft says the list covers the next 12 months and is subject to change, so check it again on the day you book.

Watch for old courses and question banks. Search results still rank AZ-204 and AZ-500 material, and some sellers keep selling it. Buying prep for a retired exam is money spent on a credential nobody can earn.

Free practice assessments are the biggest saving

The cheapest Microsoft exam is the one you only pay for once. Microsoft's practice assessments are free, can be attempted as many times as you want, and are written by the same team that develops the certification exams. Each attempt gives a score report with the answer, the rationale and links to more reading for every question.

For AZ-104, Microsoft now points you to a new practice assessment on AI Skills Navigator that it says more closely matches the exam. The older practice assessment on Microsoft Learn still works, but Microsoft says those legacy assessments are no longer being updated, so use the new one. The exam page also has a free Exam Sandbox that shows the question types and interface you will meet on the day.

A sensible rule: book the exam once you are scoring well on the practice assessment across more than one attempt, and buy Exam Replay instead of a single voucher if you are not. Our Azure practice test comparison covers the paid banks if you want questions beyond Microsoft's own.

Skip exam dumps. The ExamTopics case study shows that Microsoft treats leaked-question use as cheating and can revoke certifications, which would cost you far more than a retake.

Which route to take, by situation

1. Student outside India and China. Verify student status in your Learn profile before you book anything, then check the discounted price at checkout.
2. Sitting AZ-104 with shaky practice scores. Buy Exam Replay at $230 and use the retake if you need it.
3. Sitting AZ-104 and passing practice assessments comfortably. Pay $165 for a single attempt.
4. New to Azure. Start with AZ-900 at $99, or SC-900 at $99 if security is your direction. Exam Replay does not cover either, so practise until you are ready.
5. Holding a voucher you bought for AZ-204, AZ-500 or AI-102. Read your voucher's terms. An unredeemed Exam Replay voucher is not tied to an exam, so it can go on a live role-based exam such as AZ-104 within its 12 months.
6. Laid off in the US. Public training money may cover a course and exam, and getting a certification paid for after a layoff explains how.

If you might sit an AWS exam too, AWS's discount routes are different, and AWS vs Azure compares the two associate certifications. For a study schedule, the AZ-104 timeline gives week counts by starting point.