Every Microsoft Certification Retiring in 2026: The Full List, Dates and What Replaces Each One

If you have been putting off a Microsoft exam, stop and read this first. The list of Microsoft certifications retiring in 2026 is the longest in years, and several of the deadlines have already passed. Eighteen exams and applied skills are being withdrawn between March and September 2026, and almost every replacement is built around AI, agents and Microsoft Foundry rather than the classic Azure workloads they replace.

The short answer: if you are studying for DP-100, AI-102, AI-900 or MS-900, those exams are already gone. If you are studying for AZ-204 or MB-280, you have until 31 July 2026. AZ-500 and PL-200 run until 31 August 2026, and AZ-800 and AZ-801 until 30 September 2026. Nothing converts automatically. You pass the replacement exam or you do not hold the new credential.

This post gives you the complete list with dates, the replacement for each exam, and a straight answer on whether to rush the old exam or wait for the new one.

The Full List of Microsoft Certifications Retiring in 2026

Here is every retirement in one table, ordered by date. Dates are the last day you can sit the exam.

Exam Tip: There is no automatic migration. Holding AZ-500 does not grant you SC-500, and holding AZ-800 plus AZ-801 does not grant you AZ-802. Every replacement is a separate exam you have to book, pay for and pass.

What Happens to a Certification You Have Already Earned

This is the question that causes the most panic, and the answer is reassuring.

A certification you have already passed does not vanish on the retirement date. It stays permanently on your Microsoft Learn transcript and remains verifiable by employers. What changes is your ability to keep it current.

• Before the retirement date: you can sit the exam, and you can renew the credential for free through the annual Microsoft Learn renewal assessment.
• After the retirement date: no new attempts are possible, and once your current renewal window expires, the credential moves to an expired state on your transcript.

So an AZ-500 earned in July 2026 is a real, listable credential. It just cannot be renewed indefinitely, and within two years most job adverts will be asking for SC-500 instead.

Deadlines That Are Still Live: What to Do Right Now

Three deadlines still matter as of late July 2026. Here is the decision for each.

AZ-204 retires 31 July 2026, replaced by AI-200

AZ-204 is the Azure Developer Associate exam, and it is being replaced by AI-200, which leads to the Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate certification. The change reflects Microsoft folding AI application development into what used to be a general Azure development role.

Sit AZ-204 now only if you are already exam-ready and want the credential on your transcript this week. Otherwise the answer is obvious: study for AI-200 instead. Passing a certification that expires from the catalogue in a matter of days is a poor use of study time unless a current employer specifically requires it. We covered the full comparison in AZ-204 is being replaced by AI-200, and there is an 8-week AI-200 study plan if you have made the switch.

AZ-500 retires 31 August 2026, replaced by SC-500

This is the biggest retirement of the year by candidate volume. AZ-500 (Azure Security Engineer Associate) becomes SC-500 (Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate). The SC-500 beta launched on 15 May 2026.

SC-500 is not a rebadge. It keeps the identity, platform protection and data security fundamentals, then adds securing AI workloads, model environments, prompt injection defences and the AI supply chain. If you have been working in Azure security for years, roughly two thirds of the content is familiar and the AI third is genuinely new material.

Sit AZ-500 now if you can be exam-ready inside five weeks and you need the credential for a partner requirement or an imminent job application. During the transition period, either AZ-500 or SC-500 satisfies Security Solutions Partner designation and specialisation skilling requirements, so an AZ-500 pass is not wasted for partner purposes.

Go straight to SC-500 if you are starting from scratch, because you will spend the same study effort on a credential with a multi-year shelf life instead of one with a five-week window. Read AZ-500 vs SC-500 for the domain-by-domain breakdown, or start the 8-week SC-500 study plan.

AZ-800 and AZ-801 retire 30 September 2026, replaced by AZ-802

The Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate certification currently requires two exams. From October 2026, it requires one: AZ-802.

This is the one retirement where waiting is clearly cheaper. Two exams at the standard associate price become one. If you have already passed AZ-800 and are partway through AZ-801, finish AZ-801 before 30 September to complete the certification the old way. If you have passed neither, wait for AZ-802 and pay once. See AZ-800 and AZ-801 are becoming one exam and the AZ-802 study plan.

Deadlines That Have Already Passed

If you are landing here after the fact, these four are closed. Your only route is the replacement.

AI-900 is the odd one out and worth explaining properly. The Azure AI Fundamentals certification is not retiring. Only the AI-900 exam retired, and AI-901 is the refreshed exam that now leads to the same certification. If you passed AI-900 before 30 June 2026, you hold Azure AI Fundamentals and you do not need to do anything. If you did not, you sit AI-901. The differences are set out in AI-900 vs AI-901.

Similarly, AI-102 holders keep the Azure AI Engineer Associate credential on their transcript, but new candidates now take AI-103 for the Azure AI App and Agent Developer Associate certification. The two are compared in AI-102 vs AI-103.

Power Platform and Dynamics 365: The Quiet Cull

The Azure retirements get the attention, but the heaviest losses are in Power Platform and Dynamics 365. Six credentials went or are going in 2026:

• PL-600 (Power Platform Solution Architect Expert), retired 30 June 2026
• PL-500 (Power Automate RPA Developer Associate), retired 30 June 2026, no direct replacement announced
• MB-700 (Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Architect Expert), retired 30 June 2026
• MB-335 (Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Expert), retired 30 June 2026, no replacement announced
• MB-240 (Dynamics 365 Field Service Functional Consultant), retired 30 June 2026
• MB-280 (Dynamics 365 Customer Experience Analyst), retiring 31 July 2026, replaced by AB-210
• PL-200 (Power Platform Functional Consultant Associate), retiring 31 August 2026, replaced by AB-410

Most of the architect-level retirements point candidates toward AB-100, the Agentic AI Business Solutions Architect, rather than a like-for-like successor. That is a meaningful shift in what Microsoft expects a solution architect to know. The old expectation was deep knowledge of Dataverse, model-driven apps and the Power Platform admin surface. The new expectation is designing agentic systems on top of Microsoft Foundry, with the platform knowledge assumed rather than tested.

PL-500 and MB-335 have no announced replacement at all. If you hold either, treat it as a legacy credential and plan a move to the AB series.

Why Microsoft Is Doing This

Two things are happening at once, and it helps to see them separately.

The AB series is new, not a rename. AB-900, AB-100, AB-210, AB-410 and AB-620 form a new family of credentials built around Copilot, agents and Microsoft Foundry. These did not exist eighteen months ago.

The Azure role exams are being re-scoped around AI. AZ-204 becomes an AI developer exam. AZ-500 becomes an AI security exam. DP-100 becomes an MLOps exam. The underlying job roles have not disappeared, but Microsoft has decided that in 2026, an Azure developer who cannot ship an AI feature and a security engineer who cannot secure a model endpoint are incomplete.

The practical consequence for you: expect every Microsoft exam you sit from here on to contain AI content, whether or not "AI" appears in the exam code.

How to Decide: Rush the Old Exam or Wait for the New One?

Use this as a quick decision rule.

Sit the retiring exam if all three are true:

1. You are already close to exam-ready, meaning you are consistently scoring above 80 percent on practice questions.
2. There is a concrete reason you need the credential this quarter, such as a partner requirement, a job application, or an employer reimbursement deadline.
3. The exam retires more than two weeks from today, so you have time to book a slot.

Study the replacement if any of these are true:

1. You are starting the topic from scratch.
2. The retirement date is inside a month and you are not already prepared.
3. Your goal is long-term employability rather than a box-tick this quarter.

Exam Tip: Check the retirement date against your booking availability, not just today's date. Pearson VUE slots for popular exams frequently run one to two weeks out, which can quietly eat your remaining window.

One more consideration if you hold an unspent voucher: retirement deadlines change the maths on what to spend it on. We worked through that in the smartest exam to spend a free Microsoft voucher on.

The Replacement Exams Worth Prioritising

If you are rebuilding a study plan around the new catalogue, these are the replacements with the strongest demand behind them:

1. SC-500 (Cloud and AI Security Engineer Associate). The direct successor to the most popular Azure security credential, with AI security content that very few practitioners currently hold.
2. AI-200 (Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate). Inherits the enormous AZ-204 candidate pool.
3. AZ-802 (Windows Server Hybrid Administrator). One exam instead of two, for an infrastructure role that is not going anywhere.
4. AI-300 (MLOps Engineer Associate). The data science path, retargeted at operationalising models rather than building them.
5. AI-103 (Azure AI App and Agent Developer Associate). The successor to AI-102 and the natural next step after AI-901.

All five have full study plans and practice question banks on CertCrush. You can browse the complete Microsoft track on the courses page.

Ready to Start Practising?

Retirement deadlines are only stressful when you are unprepared for them. The candidates who get caught out are the ones who spent six months on passive video courses and never tested themselves under exam conditions.

CertCrush gives you exam-realistic practice questions with full explanations for the whole 2026 Microsoft catalogue, including SC-500, AI-200, AI-300, AI-103, AI-901 and AZ-802, so you can find out today whether you are ready to sit an exam before its window closes.

Create your free account and take a diagnostic practice exam for the certification you are chasing. If you are still deciding which replacement to target, start with the full course list and pick the track that matches the role you actually want.