Earn 60 PDUs and Renew Your PMP® Certification
Earning 60 free PMP PDUs and renewing your PMP certification (and all other PMI certifications) is straightforward when you follow these 4 steps and 3 tips. Applying the following 3 tips will help you quickly accrue PDUs for renewing all your PMI international certifications.
In the article "8 steps to perfectly time your PMP® application, membership, and exam fees," you were guided on how to become a PMI member when registering for the certification exam.
This article outlines the most efficient and cost-effective approach to renewing your PMP® and other PMI certifications. Whether you have just earned your certification or have held it for many years, the steps remain the same.
As PMI's Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) Program requires, you need to earn the necessary number of Professional Development Units (PDUs) and pay the renewal fee to renew your certifications. Let's explore how!
I. What is CCR, and what is a PDU?
CCR is PMI's Continuing Certification Requirements program, designed to help credential holders develop required skills and maintain their certification status easily.
A Professional Development Unit (PDU) is a one-hour block of time that you spend on:
- Learning
- Teaching Others
- Volunteering
PDUs help you maintain your PMI certification status.
There are two types of PDUs you can earn to renew your certification: Education PDUs and Giving Back PDUs
1. Education PDUs align with the Talent Triangle
|
| Ways of Working: It’s clear that there is more than one way that work gets done today. We encourage mastering as many ways of working as possible - so you can apply the right technique at the right time, delivering winning results. |
| Power Skills: These interpersonal skills include collaborative leadership, communication, an innovative mindset, for-purpose orientation, and empathy. Ensuring teams have these skills allows them to maintain influence with a variety of stakeholders—a critical component for making change.. | |
| Business Acumen: Professionals at all levels need to be able to cultivate effective decision-making and understand how their projects align with the big picture of broader organizational strategy and global trends. |
You can earn Education PDUs through various means such as attending courses or training, global events, local chapter meetings, reading books, etc., as recommended by PMI.
2. Giving Back PDUs - Contributing to the Profession
Sharing knowledge and actively applying your skills is an important way to contribute to the profession while enriching your own professional skills. You can earn Giving Back PDUs through various means such as writing content, giving presentations, sharing knowledge, etc., as recommended by PMI.
II. Specific PDU Requirements for Each Certification:
1. To renew your PMP®, PgMP®, PfMP®, or PMI-PBA®certification, you need to earn 60 PDUs per 3-year cycle. These 60 PDUs can be further broken down as follows:
- Minimum 35 Education PDUs: meaning at least 35 education PDUs are required, with no maximum limit. This implies you can earn all 60 PDUs as Education PDUs if you prefer. Within these, a minimum of 8 PDUs is required in each area of the PMI Talent Triangle (Ways of Working: at least 8 PDUs; Power Skills: at least 8 PDUs; Business Acumen: at least 8 PDUs).
- Maximum 25 Giving Back PDUs: meaning at least 0 Giving Back PDUs are required, with a maximum of 25 Giving Back PDUs.
2. To renew your PMI-ACP®, PMI-RMP®, PMI-SP®, and PMI-CP™ certification, you need to earn 30 PDUs per 3-year cycle. These 30 PDUs can be further broken down as follows:
- Minimum 18 Education PDUs: meaning at least 18 education PDUs are required, with no maximum limit. This implies you can earn all 30 PDUs as Education PDUs if you prefer. Within these, a minimum of 4 PDUs is required in each area of the PMI Talent Triangle (Ways of Working: at least 4 PDUs; Power Skills: at least 4 PDUs; Business Acumen: at least 4 PDUs).
- Maximum 12 Giving Back PDUs: meaning at least 0 Giving Back PDUs are required, with a maximum of 12 Giving Back PDUs.
3. To renew your CAPM®certification, you need to earn 15 PDUs per 3-year cycle. These 15 PDUs can be further broken down as follows:
- Minimum 9 Education PDUs: meaning at least 9 education PDUs are required, with no maximum limit. This implies you can earn all 15 PDUs as Education PDUs if you prefer. Within these, a minimum of 2 PDUs is required in each area of the PMI Talent Triangle (Ways of Working: at least 2 PDUs; Power Skills: at least 2 PDUs; Business Acumen: at least 2 PDUs)
- Maximum 6 Giving Back PDUs: meaning at least 0 Giving Back PDUs are required, with a maximum of 6 Giving Back PDUs.
To simplify the PDU accumulation process, Atoha's advice is that it is NOT NECESSARY to utilize Giving Back PDUs.
III. How to Earn PDUs and Renew Your Certification
Here are the 4 steps to help you accumulate 60 Professional Development Units (PDUs) and renew your PMP® certification (as well as other PMI certifications):
Step 1. Earn the required number of PDUs to meet CCR requirements.
Tip 1: As a PMI member, you can earn 60 Education PDUs completely free on projectmanagement.com. This is fast, inexpensive, convenient, and eliminates the need for manual reporting in CCRS by following these steps:
- Step 1: Log in to projectmanagement.com using your PMI member account.
- Step 2: Select "on-demand webinars," and thousands of free webinars for PMI members will appear.
- Step 3: In the left-hand filter area, select PMP® and then the areas of the Talent Triangle to find relevant webinars. Note that for PMP® requirements, Education PDUs need to cover:
- Ways of Working: at least 8 PDUs
- Power Skills: at least 8 PDUs
- Business Acumen: at least 8 PDUs
- The remaining PDUs (to reach 60 PDUs) can be earned in any category.
Tip 2: It is RECOMMENDED to choose webinars that can simultaneously accrue PDUs for multiple certifications to save time (if you hold multiple PMI certifications).
Tip 3: Renew immediately after initial certification to extend the certification active status to six years, saving $63 on the certification renewal fee.
If you have recently earned your PMP® certification and are still a PMI member, you can earn 60 PDUs for free on projectmanagement.com. Following this, you can renew your PMP® certification immediately within this first year of membership, extending your PMP®'s validity from 3 years to 6 years. This also saves you $63 on the certification renewal fee because you are a PMI member – costing only USD 42 (the PMP renewal fee for PMI members as of 01/2023) instead of USD 105 (the renewal fee for non-members).
Step 2. Report your PDUs in the online Continuing Certification Requirements System (CCRS).
If you did not earn Professional Development Units (PDUs) using Tip 1 in Step 1, but instead attended events/workshops with PDU claim codes, you need to enter the information into the CCRS system as follows:
Go to myPMI > Select Dashboard > Click Report PDUs > Select PDU Claim Code. Then, choose the content that matches your PDUs and fill in the required information.
Step 3. Submit the certification renewal payment
You will receive information on how to make payment when it's time to renew your certification. Alternatively, select "Renew" in the frame below. When you pay the renewal fee, even if you pay it before your certification expires, your new cycle end date will still be three years from your current certification's expiration date. For example: Your certification renewal date is December 28, 2019. You renew on March 1, 2019. Your certification renewal date will be December 28, 2022 (three years from the original expiration date)
PMI's certification renewal fees have been reduced for some regions, including Vietnam, and are currently as follows:
- For PMI Members: $42 (previously $60)
- For Non-PMI Members: $105 (previously $150)
Step 4. After you renew, your certification will be valid for an additional 3 years
Take a break before you start planning for your next 3-year renewal cycle.
Note: Turn off the annual PMI Membership auto-renewal feature to avoid losing $99 if you do not genuinely intend to auto-renew.
Since PMI Membership is not required to be renewed annually, candidates should remember to disable the automatic membership renewal feature on the PMI Dashboard if they do not wish to renew it automatically each year. To do so, follow these steps:
Go to the PMI Dashboard at https://my.pmi.org/. Then, go to the sections below in order and turn off the membership auto-renewal function to complete.
Dashboard > Membership > Manage Membership > Membership Automatic Renewal > Turn off
- Membership is automatically renewed annually by default.
- PMP®/PMI certifications need to be renewed every 3 years (except for Disciplined Agile certifications such as DASM, DASSM, DAC, DAVSC, which need to be renewed annually).
- In year 1 after passing PMP®/PMI certifications, while still a PMI member, renewal is for 6 years immediately and costs 42 USD per certification, saving 63 USD per certification compared to non-PMI members [the renewal fee for non-PMI members is 105 USD]💥💥
- Years 2, 3, 4, and 5: Membership is not mandatory. Those who wish to register for membership annually do not need to pay attention to this guidance. PMI members will have access to many documents, articles, publications, and other benefits.
- Year 6: Register for membership, accumulate 60 free PDUs, then renew PMP® for another 3-year cycle.
- Years 7 and 8: Membership is not mandatory.
- Year 9: Register for membership, accumulate 60 free PDUs, then renew PMP® for another 3-year cycle. The same applies to subsequent cycles.
💥💥 Candidates who forget to accumulate PDUs and renew immediately in year 1 will have to register as a PMI member in year 3 to accumulate PDUs and renew for the next 3-year cycle, and will incur an additional cost of $109 due to this oversight.
See more: PMP GUIDE - PMP Exam Prep Guide