Microsoft Certification Retirements 2026: Full List and What Replaces Each One

Microsoft Certification Retirements 2026: Full List and What Replaces Each One

If you've logged into Microsoft Learn recently and seen a retirement banner on the exam you've been studying for, you're not alone. Microsoft is retiring 14 certifications across 2026, and almost all of them are being replaced by exams built around AI, agents, and Microsoft Foundry rather than simple refreshes of the old content. If you're mid-study for one of these, the question isn't just "when does my exam retire" — it's whether finishing the old exam still makes sense, or whether you should redirect your study hours to the replacement now. Candidates using free certification practice tests can also use them to assess their readiness before deciding whether to continue with the retiring exam or move to its replacement.
This guide covers the full list, the exact retirement windows, and what actually changed in each replacement exam, so you can make that call with real information instead of guessing from a banner notice.

Why Microsoft Is Retiring So Many Certifications at Once

This isn't a routine content refresh cycle. Microsoft has rebuilt its certification catalog around a specific bet: that AI agents, Copilot, and Microsoft Foundry are becoming a standard part of every IT role, not a specialty skill. Rather than bolting an "AI module" onto existing exams, Microsoft retired the originals and rebuilt the replacements with AI security, AI governance, or generative AI development woven directly into the core domains. That's why several of the new exams look structurally different from what they replace, not just updated.

The Full 2026 Retirement List

A separate wave of Dynamics 365 and Power Platform exams is also retiring on a similar timeline, with AI Business Solutions replacements (AB-210, AB-410, and others) — worth checking directly on Microsoft Learn if you hold a Dynamics or Power Platform credential.

Should You Rush the Old Exam, or Wait for the Replacement?

There's no single right answer here — it depends on where you are in your prep and what you actually need the certification for.

Finish the retiring exam now if:

• You've already completed most of your study material and are within a few weeks of exam-ready

• Your employer or a job requirement specifically names the old exam code

• You want the certification on your résumé sooner rather than later — a retired cert stays valid and verifiable, it just can't be earned again after the retirement date

• The new exam is still in beta with limited study material available

Wait for the replacement if:

• You're just starting your study plan and have more than 4-6 weeks of prep ahead of you

• Your role is shifting toward AI-adjacent work, since the new exams weight AI security, AI governance, or generative AI development much more heavily

• You want the current, forward-looking credential rather than one that stops being earnable in a few months

What Happens to Your Certification After the Exam Retires

This is the part that causes the most confusion. A retired exam does not erase certifications already earned through it. Your certification stays on your Microsoft Learn transcript permanently and remains verifiable online. It stays in active status for one year past your last pass or renewal date, after which it moves to expired status if you haven't renewed. The retirement of the exam itself just means you can no longer earn that specific credential for the first time — existing holders aren't affected.

Exam-by-Exam: What Actually Changed

AZ-500 → SC-500 (Security Engineer)

SC-500 keeps the identity, networking, storage, and compute security scope from AZ-500, but adds a genuinely new domain: securing AI workloads across Copilot, Microsoft Foundry agents, and Microsoft Entra Agent ID. The largest domain shifts to storage, database, and networking security (25–30%), with AI security folded into the compute domain (20–25%).

AI-102 → AI-103 (AI Apps and Agents Developer)

This is the biggest structural change on the list. Generative AI and agentic solutions go from a minor slice of AI-102 to 30–35% of AI-103 — the largest single domain. The exam also moves from per-service Azure AI thinking to a unified Microsoft Foundry framing, and runs 120 minutes instead of AI-102's 100.

DP-100 → AI-300 (MLOps Engineer)

AI-300 splits its attention between traditional ML operations (still the largest domain at 25–30%) and a brand-new GenAIOps domain (20–25%) covering deployment and monitoring of generative AI applications through Microsoft Foundry — content that simply didn't exist on DP-100.

AZ-800 / AZ-801 → AZ-802 (Windows Server Administrator)

The most mechanically simple change on this list: two exams consolidate into one. AZ-802 covers all seven domains from the previous two-exam path — AD DS, storage, monitoring, hybrid workload management, virtual machines, networking, and security — in a single 120-minute exam rather than requiring both AZ-800 and AZ-801 to be passed separately.

MS-102 → AB-650 (M365 AI Services Administrator)

AB-650 is heavily weighted toward governance and security (40–45%, the largest domain) and AI services management (35–40%), covering Copilot licensing, Microsoft Agent 365, and AI-specific data governance through Microsoft Purview. Classic tenant administration — the bulk of MS-102 — shrinks to just 20–25% of the new exam.

How to Prepare, Regardless of Which Path You Choose

1. Check the exact retirement date for your specific exam on Microsoft Learn — dates in this article are current as of publication but Microsoft has moved deadlines before

2. If you're targeting a replacement exam still in beta, expect thinner study material and plan for a longer prep window than usual

3. Budget extra time for whichever domain is entirely new (AI security, GenAIOps, or AI governance, depending on the exam) — this is where most candidates coming from the old exam underestimate their gap

4. Confirm whether your employer's certification requirements reference the exam code or the role — if it's the role, the replacement almost certainly satisfies it.