Renewing CompTIA Security+: Choose Your Path Early

By Sergey Nosov

16 October 2026

CompTIA Security+ expires three years after you earn it, and CompTIA’s help center is blunt: “CompTIA certifications cannot be renewed once they have expired.” The one exception is a thirty-day grace period for paying fees and uploading activities you finished before expiration. After that, the way back is to pass the latest version of the exam. A voucher costs $439 on CompTIA’s US store as of October 2026. The continuing education units (CEUs) you earned no longer count.

On paper, renewal comes down to three numbers: three years, 50 CEUs, and a $150 fee. In practice, every shortcut has a condition. The CertMaster CE course, which CompTIA designed to help you renew quickly, accepts only people who passed SY0-601 or an earlier version. Before expiration, passing the exam again renews you only when a newer version exists.

So choose your path in the first year, not in the last month. This article walks through every path as the rules stand in October 2026, including how much of a developer’s own work can count.

The Three-Year Cycle

The cycle starts on the day you earn the certification. It applies to every Security+ earned since 1 January 2011; CompTIA treats older ones as good for life. In CompTIA’s own example, a candidate who passed on 15 January 2025 must renew by 15 January 2028. Once renewed, the certification runs until 15 January 2031. CEUs and fees are due by the expiration date, so you can earn all 50 CEUs in the first month or spread them over three years. Only work experience is claimed one cycle year at a time.

Three rules are easy to miss:

Four Ways to Renew with One Activity

Renewal takes two forms: one activity that meets the CEU requirement by itself, or several activities that add up to 50 CEUs. Check the single activities first, because one of them may already be in your plans.

CertMaster CE. This self-paced online course costs $209 for twelve months of access. CompTIA estimates eight to ten hours, depending on what you already know. You must score 100 percent on every assessment, but you can reset an assessment and try again until you do. Finishing the course renews the certification automatically, with no CE fee. If you already paid CE fees in the current cycle, you can request a refund, an exception to the no-refund rule.

The catch is eligibility. The Security+ course accepts only people who passed SY0-601 or an earlier version, and the same course version cannot renew you twice. If you passed SY0-701, offered since 7 November 2023, CompTIA lists no course for your version; check again after SY0-801 launches.

If you are eligible, start well before your expiration date. CompTIA will not sell the course once the certification has expired and may block course redemption in the last day or two. It also dates completion in Coordinated Universal Time, not in your time zone.

A higher-level CompTIA certification. Passing CySA+, PenTest+, or SecurityX (formerly CASP+) fully renews Security+ with no CE fee. A CySA+ or PenTest+ voucher costs $439. You must pass while your Security+ is still active, and its expiration date then moves to three years from the day you pass. Passing one year into your cycle extends your Security+ by one year; a CEU renewal extends it by three.

If you want to go deeper into security anyway, I think this path gives the best long-term value, because the same study renews one credential and adds another.

A newer version of the Security+ exam. Passing the latest release renews you with no CE fee, for the price of a $439 voucher. But it works only “if a newer version is available,” in the words of CompTIA’s help center. CompTIA’s renewal policy rules out passing the exact exam twice.

If you passed SY0-701, this path opens when SY0-801 launches, which CompTIA expects on or around 17 November 2026. If your certification expires before the launch, choose another path. From the launch until the English SY0-701 exam retires on 11 June 2027, both versions are offered. A Security+ voucher works for either, as long as you test before it expires, typically a year after purchase. Book SY0-801 by its exam code, because passing SY0-701 again would not renew you.

A certification from another vendor. Earning or renewing a certification from CompTIA’s list during your cycle also counts, but this path still requires the $150 fee. As of October 2026, the Security+ list names 63 certifications worth all 50 CEUs, among them CISSP, CISM, CEH, the AWS Certified Security specialty, and several CCNP Security concentrations. Another 119 certifications on a second list earn part of the 50. The Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist, for example, earns 40 CEUs, and Google’s Professional Cloud Security Engineer earns 33.

A renewal counts as well as a first pass, so a CISSP holder can use a CISSP renewal that falls inside the Security+ cycle. CompTIA warns that the lists change “without prior notification” as its exams are updated. A certification dropped from a list counts only if you had already uploaded it, so upload yours the week you earn it.

Earning 50 CEUs One Activity at a Time

On this path, you choose the activities and pay the $150 fee plus whatever they cost. Most activities earn 1 CEU per hour. You must complete each one inside your cycle; an article, blog post, or book must be both written and published inside it. Except for listed certifications, at least 50 percent of what you learn, teach, or write must relate to the Security+ exam objectives.

CompTIA says it also weighs the “cognitive level of course content,” so a course that merely touches the right subjects may still fall short. A course from CompTIA’s preapproved list for Security+ avoids that risk.

These are the Security+ maximums for common activities in one three-year cycle, from CompTIA’s activity pages:

Suppose you passed SY0-701 in March 2025. With CertMaster CE closed to you and SY0-801 costing $439 plus study once it launches, CEUs are the natural route. One plan that reaches 50 within the caps, provided each item maps mostly to the objectives:

When Your Job Earns CEUs

Work experience looks like free credit for anyone who writes secure code, but CompTIA’s test is a proportion, not a topic. Your job earns 3 CEUs per year, 9 in all, when at least 50 percent of the work you perform relates to the exam objectives. Those objectives include application attacks, identity and access, and cryptography. Reviewing code for injection flaws, building an authentication flow, and managing certificates and signing keys all relate to them. Such tasks qualify only if, taken together, they make up at least half of your job.

The proof is a letter on company letterhead for each year. It must show your name, your current job title, the CE year it covers, the tasks you performed, and your supervisor’s signature. Work orders, performance reports, and resumes cannot replace it. CompTIA lists the end of each cycle year as the time to submit that year’s letter, which puts the third at the very end. Plan to reach 50 without that letter.

Be honest about the proportion. CompTIA’s Code of Ethics requires “accurate and authentic information,” and an audit can come even after the cycle ends. If security is a slice of your week rather than half of it, leave this activity out and earn the units from training or writing. Do the same if your employer will not write the letter.

What Each Path Costs

At CompTIA’s US store prices in October 2026, the paths compare like this:

For most people, I think the CEU path is the most cost-effective, especially when an employer’s training budget covers the courses.

CE tokens worth $25 or $50 let you pay the fee in parts. They do not expire, but each can be used once and cannot move to another cycle. CompTIA’s store sells them as nonrefundable.

The Deadline and the Thirty-Day Grace Period

CompTIA emails reminders on the day you pass or renew, two years and one year before expiration, and then 180, 90, and 30 days before. A last one comes the day after expiration if you have not renewed. The help center adds that if the reminders never reach you, “you are still responsible for knowing your renewal period end date.” My strongest recommendation is the least glamorous one: put your expiration date in your own calendar, with reminders six months and three months ahead.

If the date passes, you have one last window: a thirty-day grace period from the expiration date. CompTIA’s fee instructions say you activate it by contacting customer support. It covers paying outstanding fees and uploading CEUs you earned before the expiration date, but no new activities. In CompTIA’s words, “Earning another CompTIA certification or completing CertMaster CE during the grace period will not renew your expired certification(s).” CompTIA grants no extensions and makes no exceptions.

If you have read that the grace period lasts ninety days, that was CompTIA’s figure until late 2025. Its renewal policy said ninety days in August 2025 and thirty by November.

Paperwork That Survives an Audit

CompTIA accepts uploaded CEUs automatically and audits records at random. Its audit policy says that audits “can occur anytime, even after completing a CE cycle,” and CompTIA keeps submitted documentation for six years. Activities found invalid in an audit can lead to decertification, with thirty calendar days to appeal. Document as you go:

A Renewal Checklist

Three years, 50 CEUs, $150: the numbers are easy to remember. The conditions behind them decide whether renewal builds on work you would do anyway or ends in a new exam. Check your expiration date today.

Further Reading