MS-900 Is Retired: What Replaces Microsoft 365 Fundamentals in 2026 (AB-900 vs AB-730)

If you have been searching for an MS-900 replacement, here is the short answer: MS-900 (Microsoft 365 Fundamentals) is retired and you cannot book it any more. Microsoft pulled it on 31 March 2026, and the direct replacement is AB-900: Microsoft 365 Copilot and Agent Administration Fundamentals.

That is a bigger change than the exam code suggests. MS-900 was a broad tour of Microsoft 365: licensing tiers, what SharePoint does, how Teams fits together, what an enterprise agreement is. AB-900 assumes you already know roughly what those things are, then spends most of the exam on protecting and administering an AI-enabled tenant.

This guide covers the official retirement details, exactly what changed between the two exams, where AB-730 fits for non-administrators, and which exam is the right MS-900 replacement for your particular situation.

Yes, MS-900 Is Retired: The Official Date

There is no ambiguity here, because Microsoft says it directly on the MS-900 study guide page. The warning banner reads:

"This exam was retired on March 31, 2026, at 11:59 PM Central Standard Time."

A few practical consequences follow from that:

• You cannot schedule MS-900 through Pearson VUE. The booking route is closed, not merely discouraged.
• Any course, YouTube video, or study plan telling you to "start with MS-900" was written before March 2026 and has not been updated. There is a lot of this content still ranking, which is exactly why so many people arrive at this question confused.
• The Microsoft Learn study guide page still exists, but it is an archive. Treat it as historical reference, not a syllabus to revise from.

Microsoft had actually pushed this retirement back once already, extending the original date to 31 March 2026 to give candidates more runway. That extension is over.

Exam Tip: If a training provider is still selling an "MS-900 exam voucher" in 2026, do not buy it. There is no exam to spend it on. Microsoft vouchers are usually exam-specific, and a voucher for a retired exam is worthless.

What Replaces MS-900? AB-900 Is the Direct Replacement

The successor credential is Microsoft 365 Certified: Copilot and Agent Administration Fundamentals, earned by passing exam AB-900.

AB-900 went into beta in November 2025 and reached general availability in February 2026, which gave it roughly two months of overlap with MS-900 before the older exam closed. It sits in exactly the same place on Microsoft's certification map: fundamentals tier, no prerequisites, aimed at people early in a Microsoft 365 career or moving into tenant administration.

What it does not do is simply reskin the old syllabus. Microsoft used the retirement to rebuild the entry point around the work that actually dominates Microsoft 365 administration now: rolling out Copilot without leaking company data, governing agents, and understanding why oversharing in SharePoint suddenly became everybody's problem the moment Copilot could read it.

We have a full breakdown of the new exam in our AB-900 deep dive covering domains, cost and whether it is worth it, which is the natural next read once you have decided this is your path.

MS-900 vs AB-900: What Actually Changed

The clearest way to see the shift is to put the two syllabuses side by side. Both sets of weightings below come from the official Microsoft Learn study guides.

Three things jump out of that table.

The verbs got harder. MS-900 asked you to describe. AB-900 asks you to identify, understand and perform. Fundamentals exams are still multiple choice and still knowledge-based, but the questions are framed around doing a task rather than recognising a product name.

Governance went from a quarter of the exam to the largest single domain. Purview content that was one bullet on MS-900 is now the 35 to 40% core of AB-900, including Data Loss Prevention, sensitivity labels, Insider Risk Management, retention, and Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) for AI.

Licensing did not disappear, it moved. The old pricing and licensing domain is gone as a standalone block, but licensing questions survive inside Domain 1 (how licence types affect feature access) and Domain 3 (Copilot monthly licences versus pay-as-you-go billing). Do not skip it.

AB-900 Exam Domains and Weightings for 2026

Here is what AB-900 actually tests, as of the 22 July 2026 skills-measured update on Microsoft Learn.

Identify the core features and objects of Microsoft 365 services (30 to 35%)

The closest thing to familiar MS-900 territory. You need to navigate the Microsoft 365, Exchange, SharePoint and Teams admin centres and know which object lives where: mailboxes and distribution groups in Exchange, sites and libraries in SharePoint, teams and channels and policies in Teams.

It also covers core security: Zero Trust principles, authentication methods, conditional access, single sign-on, Microsoft Entra ID, Identity Secure Score, Privileged Identity Management, and Defender XDR.

Understand data protection and governance tasks for Microsoft 365 and Copilot (35 to 40%)

The biggest domain, and the one most MS-900 study material will not prepare you for at all. Expect Microsoft Purview across the board: Information Protection, DLP, Insider Risk Management, Communication Compliance, Data Lifecycle Management, sensitivity labels, data classification and retention.

Layered on top is the Copilot-specific angle: how Copilot accesses data, how Microsoft Graph shapes its responses, how existing permissions protect against oversharing, and responsible AI principles. There is a dedicated slice on finding and fixing SharePoint oversharing, including data access governance reports and SharePoint Advanced Management restricted access control.

Perform basic administrative tasks for Copilot and agents (25 to 30%)

Assigning Copilot licences, managing pay-as-you-go billing policies, monitoring adoption through Copilot Analytics, and managing prompts (saving, sharing, scheduling, deleting). On the agent side: configuring user access, creating an agent, understanding the approval process, and monitoring agent lifecycle through the Microsoft 365 and Power Platform admin centres. You are also expected to know the use cases for the Researcher and Analyst agents.

Exam Tip: AB-900 costs US$99, the standard Microsoft Fundamentals price and the same as MS-900 charged. Prices vary by country because of local proctoring costs and tax, so confirm the figure on the Pearson VUE scheduling page before you book.

AB-730: The Better Choice If You Are Not an Administrator

A lot of people sat MS-900 who had no intention of ever touching an admin centre. Project managers, consultants, analysts and sales staff took it because it was the cheap, credible way to prove they understood the Microsoft 365 world.

If that describes you, AB-900 is probably the wrong MS-900 replacement. It is now genuinely an administrator exam, and Domain 2 alone will have you learning Purview DLP policy behaviour that you will never use.

Microsoft Certified: AI Business Professional (exam AB-730) is the better fit. It is a beginner-level credential aimed explicitly at business users, and it assesses three areas:

• Understand generative AI fundamentals
• Manage prompts and conversations by using AI
• Draft and analyse business content by using AI

The exam runs for 45 minutes and is offered in thirteen languages. Microsoft prices it by region rather than publishing one global figure, so budget somewhere in the US$99 to US$165 range and check at booking.

The trade-off is straightforward. AB-730 proves you can use Copilot productively. AB-900 proves you can administer and secure it. Employers reading a CV treat those very differently, so pick based on the job you want, not on which exam looks easier.

Choosing Your MS-900 Replacement Exam: A Simple Decision Guide

MS-900 was a single default answer for a broad group of people. Its replacement is not one exam but a small branch. Work through these in order.

1. You want to administer Microsoft 365 tenants. Sit AB-900. It is the direct successor and the correct first rung on the administration ladder.

2. You use Copilot in a business role and want to evidence it. Sit AB-730. Faster, more relevant, and it will not bury you in admin-centre navigation.

3. You actually wanted a security foundation, and Microsoft 365 was incidental. Sit SC-900 instead. Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Fundamentals covers Entra, Purview and Defender across the whole Microsoft estate rather than just Microsoft 365, and it is a cleaner bridge to SC-200 or SC-300 later. See our SC-900 breakdown for the full picture.

4. You are aiming at AI rather than productivity tooling. Sit AI-901, Microsoft's refreshed Azure AI Fundamentals exam. Our 4-week AI-901 study plan walks through the current objectives.

5. You are already an administrator and MS-900 was going to be a formality. Skip fundamentals entirely and go straight to a role-based exam. AB-900 will not teach you anything, and a fundamentals badge adds little to a CV that already shows tenant experience.

Exam Tip: None of these fundamentals certifications expire. Microsoft Fundamentals credentials are permanent and require no renewal assessment, unlike associate, expert and specialty certifications, which expire annually and need a free online renewal on Microsoft Learn.

If You Already Passed MS-900, Here Is Where You Stand

Good news, mostly. Your certification is not revoked and you do not need to do anything.

• The credential remains valid and stays on your transcript. Fundamentals certifications do not expire, and retirement of the exam does not retroactively cancel the certification of people who passed it.
• There is nothing to renew. If you go looking for an MS-900 renewal assessment on Microsoft Learn, you will not find one, and that is correct behaviour rather than a bug.
• For Microsoft partners, the retired certification continues counting toward designation points until 31 March 2027. That is a hard deadline worth putting in a calendar if your organisation depends on those points.

The honest caveat: an MS-900 on your CV in 2026 signals knowledge of a Microsoft 365 that no longer reflects how the platform is administered. It is not worthless, but it is dated. If Microsoft 365 is central to your role, AB-900 is worth adding rather than resting on the older badge.

MS-900 Was Not the Only Fundamentals Exam Retired

This retirement was part of a wider Microsoft refresh, not a one-off. MB-910 (Dynamics 365 Fundamentals CRM) and MB-920 (Dynamics 365 Fundamentals ERP) were retired in the same wave.

The pattern across Microsoft's 2026 changes is consistent: product-tour fundamentals exams are being replaced by AI-centred credentials that assume the tour and test the governance. You can see the same logic in MS-102 being replaced by AB-650, and in AI-900 giving way to AI-901.

If you are planning any Microsoft certification this year, check the full list before you book. Our complete guide to every Microsoft certification retiring in 2026 has the dates and replacements in one table, and it will save you the same wasted study time that brought you to this page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is MS-900 discontinued?

Yes. Microsoft retired MS-900 on 31 March 2026 at 11:59 PM Central Standard Time, and the exam can no longer be scheduled through Pearson VUE. The Microsoft Learn study guide page for MS-900 still exists but now carries a retirement warning at the top and should be treated as an archive.

Has MS-900 been replaced?

Yes, by AB-900: Microsoft 365 Copilot and Agent Administration Fundamentals, which reached general availability in February 2026. It occupies the same fundamentals tier with no prerequisites, but the content is substantially different, with Purview data governance and Copilot administration replacing much of the old product-overview and licensing material.

Do you have to renew MS-900?

No. Microsoft Fundamentals certifications never expire, so there is no renewal assessment for MS-900 and nothing you need to do to keep it. Only associate, expert and specialty certifications expire annually, and those are renewed by passing a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn.

How much does it cost to take the MS-900 exam?

You cannot take it at any price, because the exam is retired. Its replacement, AB-900, costs US$99 in the United States, which was also the MS-900 price. Regional pricing varies with local proctoring costs and tax, so confirm the amount on the Pearson VUE scheduling page.

Is the MS-900 certification still worth it?

The certification you already hold remains valid and looks fine on a transcript, but you cannot earn it any more, so the question is really about what to sit instead. For anyone administering Microsoft 365 in 2026, AB-900 carries more weight because it evidences Copilot and data-governance skills that employers are actively hiring for.

What replaced the AI-900 certification?

AI-901 replaced AI-900 as Microsoft's Azure AI Fundamentals exam, following the same pattern as the MS-900 to AB-900 move: a refreshed syllabus built around generative AI and agents rather than classic machine-learning concepts.

Ready to Start Practising?

Knowing which exam replaced MS-900 is the easy part. Passing it is a matter of drilling questions until the Purview policy types and admin-centre boundaries stop blurring together, because that is where fundamentals candidates actually lose marks.

CertCrush gives you exam-style practice questions with full explanations for the Microsoft certifications that matter most right now, including SC-900, AI-901, SC-200 and SC-500. Every question tells you why the right answer is right and, just as importantly, why the plausible-looking wrong ones are wrong.

Create your free CertCrush account and start practising today, or browse the full course catalogue to find your exam.