CompTIA certifications expire after three years. Most candidates know this. Fewer know that they have a choice: retake the current exam or maintain the certification through Continuing Education Units (CEUs). The CEU path is cheaper, less disruptive, and builds professional development rather than just re-validating existing knowledge.
But CEUs have enough complexity — what counts, how to submit them, what happens if you don't submit in time — that candidates either ignore maintenance until the last minute or lose certifications by accident.
How the CEU System Works
Each CompTIA certification has a specific CEU requirement per three-year cycle:
| Certification | CEUs required (3 years) |
|---|---|
| A+ | 20 |
| Network+ | 30 |
| Security+ | 50 |
| CySA+ | 60 |
| CASP+ | 75 |
| PenTest+ | 60 |
| Linux+ | 30 |
| Cloud+ | 30 |
Higher-level certifications require more CEUs. CASP+ at 75 reflects the expectation that expert-level practitioners engage in continuous professional development.
CEU calculation: each CEU equals approximately one hour of professional development activity. A 2-hour training session earns 2 CEUs. A professional conference attended for 6 hours earns 6 CEUs. An industry certification from another vendor earns a defined number of CEUs based on its scope.
The CE program fee: maintaining certifications through CEUs requires a $50 annual fee per active CE certification (paid to CompTIA). This is separate from CEU activities and applies regardless of how you accumulate CEUs.
What Activities Earn CEUs
CompTIA accepts a wide range of activities as CEU-eligible. The categories:
Category 1: Higher-Level Certifications
Passing a more advanced certification earns CEUs for lower-level certifications:
Passing Security+ earns 50 CEUs toward Network+ maintenance
Passing CySA+ earns 50 CEUs toward Security+ maintenance
Passing CASP+ earns 75 CEUs toward Security+ and CySA+ maintenance
Passing an industry partner certification (AWS, Azure, CISSP, CEH) earns CEUs
The multiplier effect: earning a higher certification maintains lower ones simultaneously. A candidate who passes CySA+ and pays the CE fee maintains Security+ without any additional CEU activity.
Industry certifications that earn CEUs for Security+:
| Certification | CEUs earned |
|---|---|
| CISSP | 75 |
| AWS Security Specialty | 50 |
| AZ-500 | 50 |
| CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker) | 50 |
| OSCP | 50 |
| Cisco CCNA Security | 30 |
This makes professional certifications a two-for-one: you advance your career AND maintain existing CompTIA credentials.
Category 2: Training and Coursework
College coursework: credit-bearing courses earn 20 CEUs per credit hour
Non-credit training courses: 1 CEU per hour of instruction
Vendor training (Cisco, Microsoft, AWS courses): 1 CEU per hour
CompTIA's own CertMaster Learn or CertMaster CE: specific CEU values per course
Online platforms (Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, Udemy): 1 CEU per hour of completed courses
Documentation requirement: you need a completion certificate or transcript showing completion date, course name, and hours. Most platforms provide certificates automatically — save them.
Category 3: Work Experience
Security and IT work experience earns CEUs:
IT security work: 5 CEUs per month (up to 20 CEUs/year maximum)
Non-security IT work (for security certifications): 3 CEUs per month (up to 20 CEUs/year)
Work experience alone won't satisfy the full CEU requirement for higher-level certifications (CySA+, CASP+), but it provides a meaningful base to build on.
Category 4: Professional Development
Presenting at industry conferences: 10 CEUs per presentation
Writing technical articles or blogs: 5 CEUs per published article
Teaching IT courses: 10 CEUs per course taught
Industry group membership and participation: varies
Attending IT security conferences (DEF CON, Black Hat, BSides): 1 CEU per hour
"The CEU system rewards exactly the behaviors that keep security professionals current — taking courses, attending conferences, earning new certifications. Candidates who are genuinely growing professionally accumulate CEUs organically. The problem is documentation. I've seen professionals lose certifications not because they didn't do the activities but because they didn't track and submit them." — Diane Barrett, CASP+, security educator and CompTIA CE contributor
How to Submit CEUs
CompTIA uses the CertMetrics platform (accessible through comptia.org) for CEU management:
Log into your CompTIA account at certmetrics.com
Navigate to "Continuing Education"
Click "Submit CEU Activity"
Select the activity type, enter hours/dates, and upload documentation
CEUs are added immediately upon submission (no approval delay)
Required documentation by activity type:
Training courses: completion certificate showing course name, completion date, and hours
Industry certifications: certificate or official notification of passing
Work experience: signed letter from manager on company letterhead, or self-attestation
Conference attendance: receipt, badge, or agenda showing dates and hours
Publications: link to published article with date
Save documentation as you earn it. Hunting for certificates from three-year-old Udemy courses when renewal is due is significantly harder than saving them when you complete them.
The Annual Renewal Timeline
The CE cycle starts from the day you passed the certification exam. CEU requirements must be met by the certification expiration date (three years from pass date).
Recommended tracking cadence: review your CEU progress at the 12-month, 24-month, and 30-month marks.
12 months: should have 30-40% of requirement completed if you're on track
24 months: should have 60-70% completed
30 months: if below 80%, focus exclusively on CEU accumulation until the deadline
The 90-day grace period: after expiration, CompTIA provides 90 days to complete CE requirements and retroactively maintain the certification. This requires proof that activities were completed before expiration, not during the grace period. Don't count on this — use it only as a safety net, not a strategy.
The Retake Option Compared
For candidates approaching expiration without sufficient CEUs, retaking the current exam is always available:
| Approach | Cost | Time required | Benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| CEU path | $50/year + activity costs | Ongoing low effort | Professional development, cheaper long-term |
| Retake exam | $250-509 per exam | 4-8 weeks study | Validates current knowledge, resets full 3 years |
| Let lapse + retake | $250-509 + restart | Study from scratch | Fresh start if skills have evolved |
When to retake instead of CEUs: if the exam content has substantially changed since you certified and your skills have genuinely advanced, retaking confirms current knowledge rather than just maintaining an older credential. When the delta between your current knowledge and the exam content is large, retaking produces more credential credibility than CEU maintenance.
When CEUs are clearly better: for active practitioners who are continuously learning (courses, conferences, new certifications) — CEU accumulation is a natural byproduct of professional activity that costs less and creates less disruption than exam retakes.
Building a CEU Strategy at Certification Time
The best time to plan CEU maintenance is the day you pass a CompTIA certification.
Practical CEU accumulation strategy:
- LinkedIn Learning or Coursera subscription: $30-50/month. Complete relevant courses throughout the year. Each 10-hour course = 10 CEUs. A subscription produces 60-120+ CEUs/year automatically.
- Earn one higher-level certification per cycle: Security+ → CySA+ within 3 years provides 50 CEUs toward Security+ maintenance. CySA+ → CASP+ provides CEUs toward both. This aligns certification advancement with maintenance.
- Document conference attendance: DEF CON, BSides events, Black Hat, RSA, local security meetups. Each hour = 1 CEU. A two-day conference = 16 CEUs.
- Submit work experience quarterly: 5 CEUs/month for security work = 15 CEUs per quarter. Four submissions per year covers 60 CEUs — sufficient for Security+ maintenance alone.
The candidates who lose certifications aren't the ones who don't do professional development — they're the ones who do it without documenting and submitting it.
Specific CEU Values by Activity Type
The general rule of "1 CEU per hour" applies to many activities, but CompTIA assigns specific values to structured activities. These numbers are from the current CompTIA CE program guide.
| Activity | CEUs Earned | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Attending a webinar (1 hour) | 1 | Requires completion certificate |
| College course (3 credit hours) | 9 | 3 CEUs per credit hour |
| College course (4 credit hours) | 12 | Same rate |
| Online course (Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, Coursera) | 1 per hour | Completion certificate required |
| CompTIA CertMaster CE | Variable | Platform-specific values; full Security+ CE = 50 CEUs |
| Vendor training course (half-day) | 4 | Cisco, Microsoft, AWS training |
| Vendor training course (full-day) | 8 | |
| Attending DEF CON (3 days, ~8 hrs/day) | 24 | Receipt and agenda as documentation |
| Presenting at a conference | 10 | Per presentation |
| Writing a technical article | 5 | Per published article |
| Teaching a course | 10 | Per course, not per session |
| IT security work experience | 5 per month | Max 20 CEUs/year from work experience |
| Non-security IT work (for security certs) | 3 per month | Max 20 CEUs/year |
| CISSP | 75 | Toward any CompTIA cert lower than CASP+ |
| CySA+ | 50 | Toward Security+ |
| CASP+ | 75 | Toward Security+, CySA+, PenTest+ |
| AWS Security Specialty | 50 | Toward Security+ |
The fastest legitimate CEU sources in practice:
- CompTIA CertMaster CE: purpose-built for CompTIA renewal. A full CertMaster CE course for Security+ provides exactly 50 CEUs — meeting the full requirement in one activity. Cost is approximately $50-75 per course. This is the minimum-effort path for candidates who want to renew with a single activity.
- Work experience submissions: for active practitioners, 5 CEUs/month from security work experience accumulates 60 CEUs over a year — enough for Security+ renewal from a single source. Quarterly submission takes under 15 minutes.
- Vendor certifications: passing AWS SAA-C03, AZ-104, or CCNA earns CEUs toward CompTIA certifications while advancing your career simultaneously. This is the highest-value activity because the same effort produces both a new credential and CompTIA maintenance credits.
Navigating the CompTIA CE Portal: What the Interface Actually Looks Like
Many candidates know CEU submission is required but have never used the portal. The steps are less obvious than they should be.
Step-by-Step Portal Walkthrough
Go to comptia.org and log into your account
From the dashboard, click "My Certifications" — this shows all active certifications with their expiration dates and current CEU counts
Click on a specific certification (e.g., "Security+") to see the detail view: CEUs earned, CEUs required, expiration date, and annual renewal fee status
To submit a new activity, click "Log Activity" or navigate to the "Continuing Education" section from the main menu
Select the activity category from the dropdown (Training, Certification, Work Experience, etc.)
Fill in the activity name, date completed, and hours (or select the certification from the list)
Upload documentation: PDF or image file, maximum file size 10MB
Submit — the CEUs are added immediately and visible in your dashboard
Annual renewal fee: the $50 annual CE fee is separate from CEU submission. You pay it through the same portal under "Renew CE Subscription." If the annual fee lapses, your certification enters a grace period. CEU activities submitted during a fee lapse still count once you reinstate the fee.
What shows up on your transcript: the CompTIA transcript (accessible to employers via CertMetrics) shows certification status, expiration date, and confirms the certification is active under the CE program. Employers can verify certification status without seeing individual CEU activities.
What Happens When You Miss the Deadline
Missing the CEU deadline is more recoverable than most candidates realize, but it's not free.
The Grace Period
After a CompTIA CE certification expires, there's a 90-day reinstatement window. During this window:
You can submit CEU activities completed before the expiration date
The annual fee must be current
A $25 reinstatement fee applies
The certification expiration date doesn't extend — you get a fresh 3-year cycle from the original expiration date, not from reinstatement
The critical constraint: activities completed after the expiration date don't count for reinstatement. If your Security+ expired January 15 and you complete a Udemy course on February 1, that course counts toward your next cycle, not retroactive reinstatement.
After the Grace Period
If you miss both the expiration and 90-day grace period:
The certification status changes to "Expired" on CertMetrics
Employers verifying through CertMetrics see it as expired
You must retake and pass the current exam to reactivate
There's no "reinstatement exam" — you take the full exam
Upon passing, a new 3-year cycle starts
Cost comparison for missing the deadline:
| Scenario | Cost | Time |
|---|---|---|
| CEU maintenance (on time) | $50/year fee + activity costs | Ongoing, minimal |
| Grace period reinstatement | $50/year fee + $25 reinstatement + activities | 1-2 weeks |
| Expired + retake | $250-$509 exam fee | 4-8 weeks study |
The difference between maintaining on time and letting expire and retaking is $200-459 and 4-8 weeks of study time. The financial case for tracking CEUs proactively is clear.
Employer-Sponsored CEU Activities
Many IT employers sponsor professional development that directly satisfies CEU requirements. Candidates often don't connect their employer's training programs to their CompTIA maintenance.
Activities employers commonly fund that earn CEUs:
Vendor training and certification exams (AWS, Microsoft, Cisco)
Industry conference attendance (RSA Conference, DEF CON Corporate)
O'Reilly Learning or Safari Books subscriptions (1 CEU per hour of courses completed)
Pluralsight or LinkedIn Learning corporate accounts
Internal training programs (CompTIA accepts documented internal courses)
Security awareness and role-specific compliance training (where role-relevant)
How to document employer-sponsored activities:
Request completion certificates from your LMS (Learning Management System) for any corporate training
Get conference attendance confirmed in writing (email from HR or expense reports showing conference registration)
For internal training, ask your manager for a letter on company letterhead confirming dates, topic, and hours
Many professionals who say "I never have time to earn CEUs" are completing enough employer-sponsored activities to satisfy their requirements — they just aren't documenting and submitting them. Connecting these activities to CompTIA maintenance costs approximately 30 minutes per quarter.
See also: CompTIA Security+: the most important cert in IT security, CompTIA voucher discounts: legitimate ways to save on exam fees
References
CompTIA. CompTIA Continuing Education Program — Overview and Requirements. CompTIA, 2024. https://www.comptia.org/continuing-education
CompTIA. CompTIA CE Activities — Acceptable Activity Types. CompTIA, 2024. https://www.comptia.org/continuing-education/choose/renew-by-activity/continuing-education-activities
CompTIA. CertMetrics — CEU Submission Portal. CompTIA, 2024. https://www.certmetrics.com (Official CEU submission platform)
Barrett, Diane. CompTIA Security+ CE Maintenance Guide. CompTIA CE Program documentation. (Referenced in CompTIA's official CE program guidance materials)
CompTIA. CompTIA Certification Renewal — Retake vs CE Comparison. CompTIA, 2024. https://www.comptia.org/continuing-education/renew
CompTIA. Partner Certifications — Third-Party CE Credits for CompTIA Certifications. CompTIA, 2024. https://www.comptia.org/continuing-education/choose/renew-by-activity/third-party-certifications
Frequently Asked Questions
How many CEUs does Security+ require?
Security+ requires 50 CEUs over the 3-year certification cycle. This can come from training courses (1 CEU per hour), work experience (up to 20 CEUs/year for security work), higher-level certifications, conference attendance, or other approved activities. The $50 annual CE fee is required separately.
Can I maintain Security+ by passing CySA+?
Yes. Passing CySA+ earns 50 CEUs, which satisfies the full Security+ maintenance requirement. Higher-level certifications automatically contribute CEUs toward lower-level certification renewal, making advancement a two-for-one benefit.
What happens if my CompTIA certification expires?
CompTIA provides a 90-day grace period after expiration to submit retroactive CEUs (for activities completed before expiration). After that, the certification lapses and must be retaken by passing the current exam. The expired certification does not appear on your transcript as active.
How do I submit CEUs to CompTIA?
Log into certmetrics.com with your CompTIA account, navigate to Continuing Education, and submit each activity with documentation. Completion certificates for courses, conference receipts, manager letters for work experience, and certification notifications are accepted. CEUs are added immediately upon submission.
Is the CompTIA CE fee annual or once per certification?
The \(50 CompTIA CE fee is annual per active certification maintained through continuing education. If you hold Security+ and CySA+, the fee is \)50/year for each. Many professionals bundle this with professional membership benefits or pay it as a business expense given its low cost relative to exam retake fees.