Agile Certifications Compared: PSM, CSM, PMI-ACP, ICAgile and SAFe

A side-by-side look at five agile certification families using each certifying body's own requirements, exam formats and renewal rules, plus how to choose between them.

Get Agile · Last reviewed October 23, 2026 · 6 min read

Agile certifications are easy to collect and hard to compare. Each certifying body uses its own vocabulary, its own format and its own idea of what a certificate should prove. Some test knowledge without requiring a class. Some require a class. Some require years of documented experience before you can even apply.

This guide compares five of the most common names you will see in job postings and training catalogs: Scrum.org's Professional Scrum Master (PSM), Scrum Alliance's Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), PMI's Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), ICAgile's certifications and Scaled Agile's SAFe certifications. Every requirement below comes from the certifying body's own pages as of October 2026.

One caution before you start: certification rules, exam formats and prices change. Treat this as a map, and confirm the details on the official page before you pay for anything.

Three kinds of certification

It helps to sort credentials by what they actually verify:

Knowledge tests. You pass an exam to show you understand a framework. A class may be optional.
Course-based certifications. You attend an approved course, and in some cases pass a short test afterward.
Experience-based or competency-based credentials. You document real work, sometimes with an evaluation of your skills in practice.

None of these proves someone is good at the job. They show different kinds of preparation, and employers weigh them differently.

Professional Scrum Master I (Scrum.org)

PSM I is a knowledge test on Scrum as described in the Scrum Guide. Scrum.org's page lists these details:

80 questions in 60 minutes, with an 85% passing score
Multiple choice, multiple answer and true/false formats
Available in English and Japanese, with Simplified Chinese through a partner site
Attending a course is "not a prerequisite," though Scrum.org strongly recommends one, and each Scrum.org class includes a free attempt
Listed as a lifetime certification with no annual renewal fee
$200 USD per attempt, as listed in October 2026

Scrum.org also offers PSM II and PSM III for more advanced levels, and a parallel product owner path starting with PSPO I.

Certified ScrumMaster (Scrum Alliance)

CSM is course-based. Scrum Alliance's page describes:

A 16-hour course, usually spread over two to three days, taught by a Certified Scrum Trainer
An online test afterward: 50 multiple-choice questions, with 37 correct answers needed to pass, completed within one hour
90 days and two attempts to pass, with the test cost included in the course price
Renewal every two years by earning Scrum Education Units (SEUs) and paying a renewal fee

Trainers set their own course prices. Scrum Alliance publishes a range of $250 to $2,495 USD but notes the range is based on course prices on its site as of October 2023, so expect it to have moved. Advanced steps, the Advanced Certified ScrumMaster and Certified Scrum Professional ScrumMaster, require 12 and 24 months of logged Scrum Master experience respectively.

PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)

PMI-ACP is experience-based and not tied to a single framework. PMI describes it as covering approaches including Scrum, Lean and Kanban. Its page lists these requirements:

A high school diploma or international equivalent
Agile experience, met by ONE of: two years of agile experience in the past five years; a degree from a GAC-accredited program plus one year of agile experience; a third-party agile certification plus one year of agile experience; or the PMP certification
21 hours of formal agile training

The exam has 120 multiple-choice questions in 180 minutes with one 10-minute break. PMI lists the content areas as Mindset 28%, Leadership 25%, Product 19% and Delivery 28%. You can test at a Pearson VUE center or online, and you may attempt the exam up to three times in one year. To maintain it, holders earn 30 professional development units (PDUs) every three years. PMI's page says you pay the exam fee after your application is accepted; check PMI directly for the current amount.

ICAgile certifications

ICAgile takes a different approach: a family of certifications earned through courses from its training providers, rather than one flagship exam. Its site now carries the notice "ICAgile is now ICA." A few examples:

Agile Fundamentals (ICP) is designed for people with no previous agile experience and is not tied to any single framework.
Agile Team Facilitation (ICP-ATF) and Agile Coaching (ICP-ACC) are knowledge-based certifications on the coaching track.
Expert in Agile Coaching (ICE-AC) is competency-based. It requires both ICP-ATF and ICP-ACC, takes several months through an Accredited Expert Program, and requires you to demonstrate the expert competencies.

ICAgile states that once you earn one of its certifications, "it's yours for life." Because providers run the courses, prices and schedules vary by provider.

SAFe certifications (Scaled Agile)

SAFe certifications focus on the Scaled Agile Framework, a framework for scaling agile across many teams. Scaled Agile's current pages describe the SAFe Agilist (from the Leading SAFe course) and the SAFe Scrum Master this way:

Each exam is 90 minutes with 45 questions and an 80% passing score
The pages mark the training course as not required; you can buy a proctored exam directly
Continuing education: 12 CEUs per year (the SAFe Scrum Master page frames it as 24 CEUs over a two-year cycle)

The SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager exam is also 90 minutes, with an 82% passing score. Scaled Agile's current versions include AI-focused content, including an exam domain on AI for the SAFe Scrum Master, so check the current exam guidelines before you study.

How to choose

At a glance, here is how the five compare:

PSM I: knowledge test; course optional; 80 questions, 60 minutes, 85%; no renewal fee.
CSM: 16-hour course plus test; 50 questions, one hour, 37 correct to pass; renews every two years.
PMI-ACP: experience and 21 training hours required; 120 questions, 180 minutes; 30 PDUs every three years.
ICAgile: course-based certifications, with an expert level that assesses competence; certifications do not expire.
SAFe Agilist and SAFe Scrum Master: 45 questions, 90 minutes, 80%; course optional; annual CEUs.

With that summary in mind, work through these questions:

Start with the job you want. If postings in your target companies name a specific credential, that matters more than any general ranking.
Match the framework your organization uses. A SAFe certification makes most sense where SAFe is in use; PSM and CSM are Scrum-specific; PMI-ACP and ICAgile are broader.
Be honest about your experience. PMI-ACP and the advanced Scrum Alliance levels need documented experience, so they suit people already doing agile work.
Decide whether you want a class. If you learn best with an instructor and peers, a course-based option may suit you better than an exam-only route.
Consider upkeep. Renewal fees and continuing education add ongoing cost and effort.

Key takeaways

Sort certifications by what they verify: knowledge, course attendance, or documented experience and competence.
PSM I is an exam with an optional course and no renewal fee; CSM requires a 16-hour course and renews every two years.
PMI-ACP requires agile experience, 21 hours of training and a 120-question exam.
ICAgile offers course-based certifications that do not expire, with a competency-based expert level for coaches.
SAFe exams are 90 minutes, and Scaled Agile now marks the course as optional for several of them.
Rules and prices change, so confirm details on the official page before you enroll.

Sources

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