GitHub Copilot certification (GH-300): what it covers

The GitHub Copilot certification is the live GH-300 exam for developers, DevOps engineers and technology managers who use Copilot; take it when that is the skill you want to show. Its exam fee is separate from a Copilot subscription, and there is no prerequisite certification.

This guide explains the current GH-300 format and fee, the syllabus refreshed in August 2026, the six skill areas, and where it fits among GitHub certifications. It also sets out a practical way to prepare with the free official material and the closest related practice on this site.

At a glance

• Exam and credential: Exam GH-300: GitHub Copilot earns the GitHub Copilot certification.
• Status: live and generally available. It became generally available in October 2024, and no retirement date is announced.
• Who it suits: application developers, DevOps engineers and technology managers who use GitHub Copilot to improve development productivity, quality and security.
• Prerequisites: none. You should already be comfortable with GitHub fundamentals, at least one programming language, and responsible-AI ideas.
• Format (as of November 2026): 100 minutes, proctored through Pearson VUE, and it may include interactive components. Microsoft does not publish a question count.
• Score: 700 or higher on a 1,000-point scaled score.
• Delivery: online proctored or at a test centre, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and Japanese.
• Validity: two years. The credential is moving to Microsoft's recertification process, and certifications that expire before that is available get a six-month extension.

The official GH-300 study guide is the checklist for the syllabus, while the official certification page has the registration route and preparation resources. Read the study guide before committing to a course: it is the source that reflects the August 2026 objectives.

Exam fee vs Copilot subscription

GH-300 is an exam registration, not a Copilot plan. The fee is US$99 as of November 2026; in India it is ₹3,691 as of November 2026. Microsoft sets prices by the country where the exam is proctored, and local tax can apply, so check the official pricing feed when you schedule.

Copilot subscription plans are priced separately. Do not treat a monthly plan as an exam voucher or use the GH-300 fee to infer what a plan costs. Conversely, the certification is about using Copilot and its safeguards, so hands-on access while preparing is useful even though the two payments are different things.

The exam is delivered through Pearson VUE, either with online proctoring or at a testing centre. That distinction matters if you are comparing the fee with an online service: the fee covers a proctored assessment and the resulting credential, rather than ongoing access to the tool.

What changed in August 2026

The skills-measured outline was refreshed on 7 August 2026. The current GitHub Copilot certification is therefore broader than a guide that only teaches inline code completion and basic chat prompts. Use material that explicitly covers the refreshed outline, rather than assuming an older Copilot course is complete.

The current outline includes Agent Mode, Copilot Edits, the Copilot CLI, Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration and sub-agents. It also reaches into pull-request summaries, Spaces, Spark and custom review instructions, alongside the policy and privacy controls that matter in an organisation. You do not need to memorise product marketing; you do need to understand when a feature, a prompt, a source of context or a safeguard fits the task.

The change does not turn GH-300 into an agentic-AI credential. It remains the GitHub Copilot exam, with its largest skill area focused on using Copilot features. For the separate agentic exam, see the agentic AI certification guide.

The six GH-300 skill areas

The official weighting ranges are a way to prioritise revision, not separate pass marks. Their ranges do not add to a single fixed total, so use them to decide where more hands-on time is useful and work through every objective in the official study guide.

1. Use GitHub Copilot features (25–30%). This is the largest area: IDE setup, inline suggestions, Copilot Chat commands and the CLI are core. It also includes Agent Mode, Copilot Edits, MCP integration, sub-agents, pull-request summaries, Spaces, Spark and custom review instructions, so practise choosing the right feature for a development task.

1. Use GitHub Copilot responsibly (15–20%). Know responsible-AI principles, ethical limitations and ways to reduce harm. Treat a generated answer as input to review, not as a reason to remove engineering judgement.

1. Understand data and architecture (10–15%). Study the suggestion lifecycle, LLM limitations, proxy filtering and how prompts are built. The point is to reason about what context reaches Copilot and why a response may be limited, incomplete or unsuitable.

1. Apply prompt engineering and context (10–15%). Be able to determine useful context and structure a request, including zero-shot and few-shot prompting and the role of chat history. A better prompt is not merely longer: it gives the tool the relevant constraints and leaves you responsible for checking the result.

1. Use Copilot for developer productivity (10–15%). This covers code generation, refactoring, legacy modernisation and unit and integration test generation. Work through an ordinary code change from explanation to test, then review what the tool produced rather than accepting it unchanged.

1. Manage privacy and safeguards (10–15%). Learn content exclusions, editor settings, who owns the output, and the public-code matching filter. This matters even for an individual developer, because the exam can ask how a technical choice interacts with a team's controls. (Organisation-wide policy management and REST API administration sit under the features area in the study guide.)

GitHub's other certifications, and the order

GitHub's other live, generally available certifications each validate a different part of the platform. These are not formal prerequisites for GH-300, but their focus helps you choose a sequence.

• GH-900 — GitHub Foundations: Git and core GitHub collaboration; live and generally available.
• GH-100 — GitHub Administration (exam: GitHub Enterprise Administrator): GitHub Enterprise administration, identities, governance, Actions and secure development tooling; live and generally available.
• GH-200 — GitHub Actions: workflow creation, automation and CI/CD pipeline management; live and generally available.
• GH-500 — GitHub Advanced Security: securing code, secrets and software supply chains across the development lifecycle; live and generally available.

If Git and GitHub collaboration are new to you, begin with GH-900 and then choose GH-300 when you want to validate Copilot use. If you already work comfortably in repositories and your role uses Copilot, go directly to GH-300: it has no prerequisite certification. A DevOps engineer whose main work is automation should prioritise GH-200, while an enterprise administrator should put GH-100 first and a security-focused developer should put GH-500 first.

The Microsoft AI certification path puts GH-300 in a broader Microsoft and GitHub context. If your decision is really between coding assistants rather than between certifications, Claude vs Claude Code is the more useful comparison.

Is it worth it?

GH-300 is worth taking when Copilot is a material part of the work you want to demonstrate and you can apply the syllabus in an actual development workflow. It gives a focused way to show that you understand features, responsible use, context, productivity and organisation safeguards, rather than only basic GitHub navigation.

It is less useful as a substitute for learning Git, building software or administering a GitHub organisation. Choose GH-900 if foundations are the gap, GH-200 for workflow automation, GH-100 for enterprise administration, or GH-500 for security. For a wider comparison of AI credentials, see the best AI certifications guide.

The credential is valid for two years, so factor renewal into the decision as well as the registration fee. Microsoft says the certification is moving to its recertification process, with a six-month extension for certifications that expire before that is available; check the official certification page close to your renewal date.

How to prepare for the GitHub Copilot certification

Start with the free official material: the GH-300 study guide, GitHub Copilot Fundamentals Part 1 and Part 2 on Microsoft Learn, and the Microsoft exam sandbox. The certification page marks the official Practice Assessment as unavailable, so do not wait for it or mistake an unofficial practice test for an official assessment.

• Map the objectives. Read the official study guide and label each item as familiar, partly familiar or new. Give extra attention to the largest feature area, then make sure your list includes responsible AI, prompt context and privacy rather than studying only the IDE.
• Use the features in a real repository. Set up Copilot in an IDE, ask for an explanation, make a focused change, generate or improve tests, review a pull request and compare the result with the codebase's constraints. Include the CLI, Agent Mode, Copilot Edits and MCP in that practice because they are in the refreshed outline.
• Study governance deliberately. Work from the objectives on content exclusions, public-code matching filters, policy management and REST API administration. These are easy to overlook if you only use Copilot as an individual developer, but the study guide tests them.
• Practise the judgement around generated changes. Explain why a prompt has the right context, where an LLM limitation might matter, and how you would check a generated test or refactor. That combines the responsible-AI, architecture, prompting and productivity areas instead of treating them as isolated vocabulary.

There is no GH-300 question bank on this site. The closest material is the Git cert page and its Git practice questions, which cover repository mechanics that underpin daily Copilot workflows; use them for Git judgement, not as a prediction of the GH-300 exam.

For a short workflow check, try a practice question on comparing the working tree and index before you ask a tool to explain a change. Then use a practice question on reverting a pushed commit and a practice question on recovering work after a reset to reinforce the difference between safe shared-history recovery and local recovery. Finish with a practice question on rebasing a shared branch and a practice question on untracking an ignored file; those are useful checks on whether you can review a suggested Git action before applying it.

Frequently asked questions

How much does the GitHub Copilot certification exam cost?

The GH-300 fee is US$99 as of November 2026. In India, it is ₹3,691 as of November 2026; Microsoft prices exams by the country where they are proctored and local tax may apply. That is the proctored exam fee, not a Copilot subscription price.

Is the GitHub Copilot certification exam free?

No: GH-300 has an exam registration fee. The official study guide, Copilot Fundamentals Part 1 and Part 2, and the Microsoft exam sandbox are free preparation resources. The official Practice Assessment is marked unavailable.

How many questions are on GH-300, and how long is it?

Microsoft does not publish a GH-300 question count. The exam format is 100 minutes as of November 2026, proctored, and may include interactive components. Plan your time around the published duration rather than a question-count estimate.

Should I take GitHub Foundations before GitHub Copilot?

GH-900 is not a prerequisite for GH-300. Take Foundations first if Git, repositories, branching and collaboration still need work; otherwise, an experienced developer or DevOps engineer can go straight to Copilot. The choice is about your current skills, not an eligibility rule.

Does the GitHub Copilot certification expire?

Yes. The certification is valid for two years and is moving to Microsoft's recertification process; certifications that expire before that is available get a six-month extension, so check the certification page for the current renewal route when your credential is due.