Best PMI-ACP Exam Prep Courses for 2026

Note: The PMI-ACP Exam changed substantively in November 2024. Check out the updated Exam Content Outline and make sure any study materials you buy are aligned to the latest edition.

Are you aiming to achieve your PMI Agile Certified Professional (PMI-ACP)®? Then you’ll be looking for a course that will give you exam confidence and fits the way you want to study.

I’ve rounded up the best PMI-ACP training courses below based on my knowledge of the industry and working with providers and students as a project manager and trainer.

(Note: I’m not an agile trainer, but I am a Fellow of the Association for Project Management and I’ve got a lot of experience reviewing training courses – and I’ve taken plenty of them myself too!)

Keep reading for my analysis and reviews of the best PMI-ACP online training that will help you earn your agile certification and pass the test on your first attempt!

The courses

1. Brain Sensei Online PMI-ACP^® Exam Prep Course & Simulator
2. PMI ACP exam prep course
3. Joseph Phillips

There used to be a Velociteach course offered that I liked, but this is no longer available.

I’ve prepared a summary comparison table for the study materials below, with detailed product reviews afterwards, so read on for all the info!

Comparison table

Course	Brain Sensei	PMI-ACP Exam Prep Course (PMI)	Joseph Phillips
Rating	#1	#2	#3
Website	Brain Sensei	PMI	Udemy
Price	$249.99, or $79.99 per month	$400 for non-members, $350 for members	$149.99
Guarantee	30-day refund plus pass guarantee	None	30-day
Hours of instruction	21 hours	21 hours	13 hours of video
Approved contact hours	Yes	Yes	Yes
Student support	Online help and Facebook group	None stated	None stated
Access duration	A year	Not clear, so assuming lifetime	Lifetime
Sample exam questions	Yes, exam simulator included	No, get Study Hall for that	Yes
Suitable for PMI PDUs	Yes	Yes: 21 PDUs (10 Ways of Working, 7 Power Skills, 4 Business Acumen)	Yes
Suitable for study groups?	Yes	No, individual access	Yes

What to look for in a course

If you are considering this training, you probably work on agile projects already (you’ll need to be able to evidence your agile experience when you apply to the Project Management Institute). That might mean some of the course topics sound quite basic as you’ve already got experience in them.

When you are looking for PMI Agile Certified Practitioner Exam course, you’ll want to make sure it covers:

• Agile methodologies
• Agile principles
• Agile practices
• Agile frameworks
• Continuous improvement
• Agile teams, team performance and stakeholder engagement.

And everything else mentioned in the Exam Content Outline which you can find on the PMI website.

In addition to covering the syllabus, look for courses that will also support you through the application process, beyond providing the contact hours certification as part of the eligibility requirements.

For example, some providers include modules on how to apply and prep mentally for the test, as well as offering practice questions and case studies to help you get into the agile mindset required to do well on the exam.

Note that none of the courses below include your exam fee. You will still need to pay for and book your exam. I recommend that you become a PMI member to get a cheaper exam fee.

1. Brain Sensei PMI-ACP Exam Prep Course

Brain Sensei’s self-paced PMI-ACP course gives you the 21 contact hours you need to apply for the exam, plus an exam simulator to practise with. It uses the same interactive style as their PMP and CAPM courses: short animated lessons with quizzes as you go, rather than an instructor talking over slides.

It’s backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee and a pass guarantee. If you don’t pass, you get extra access to keep studying.

I have used Brain Sensei’s PMP course material and this follows the same pattern.

Pros

• Includes the 21 contact hours for your application
• Exam simulator included, with 850 practice questions
• Pass guarantee as well as a refund period
• Self-paced, so you can fit it around work
• Use code RGPM10 for 10% off

Cons

• Interactive clicking style won’t suit if you prefer to watch and take notes
• No student forum, only a Facebook group
• The website says it’s aligned to the 2026 exam, but as far as I can tell, the last major update was 2024, with some tweaks in 2025, so I think what they really mean is that their version is relevant for the test you are going to take right now.

Best for: Agile practitioners who want contact hours and practice questions in one place, and who like interactive, bite-sized lessons.

2. PMI-ACP Exam Prep Course from PMI

If you’d rather learn straight from the source, PMI has its own self-paced PMI-ACP course. It gives you the 21 training hours you need to apply for the exam, and it’s built around the four domains of the exam content outline: Mindset, Leadership, Product and Delivery. You work through multimedia lessons, a guided review of the references behind the exam content outline, and independent study activities.

Because it’s a self-paced course, it still counts towards your 21 hours under PMI’s new rules from 1 December 2026. The course also earns you 21 PDUs, so it’s worth knowing about if you already hold the PMI-ACP and need PDUs for your renewal.

It costs $350 for PMI members and $400 for non-members, so that’s another reason to get your PMI membership, plus there is a discount on the exam and you’ll get the Agile Practice Guide (digital copy) included.

Pros

• Created by PMI, the organisation that sets the exam
• Structured around the four domains in the exam content outline
• Includes the 21 training hours you need to apply
• Earns 21 PDUs — not relevant if you are only going for PMI-ACP, but useful if you already hold another credential through PMI or another organization.

Cons

• Doesn’t include an exam simulator, so you will need to get the Study Hall bolt-on for exam prep.
• No pass guarantee
• No student community or study group option

Best for: Candidates who want their training to come straight from PMI and follow the exam content outline closely.

3. Joseph Phillips on Udemy

All of Joseph Phillips’ courses on Udemy get good student reviews. I confess to not having taken any myself, but I think I’ve seen enough feedback from project managers I have spoken to and reviews to be able to comment, in comparison to the courses above. Over 47,000 students have taken the course at the time of writing!

Pros

Joseph Phillip’s PMI-ACP Exam Prep Success course is an on-demand course with 13 hours of video instruction split over 8 sections.

• It’s cheap. Udemy nearly always has special offers so if you time it right, you can get this course at a low cost.
• It offers the 21 contact hours required to apply for the exam (but see below for more thoughts on that).
• It includes support on how to apply for the exam.
• The videos have captions in 5 languages! Great if English is not your first language or if you prefer to have subtitles on.
• It includes a practice test.
• You can gift the course to someone else – perfect if you already have an account on Udemy and are providing training resources for your team.

Cons

Given that the course is advertised as having only 13 hours of video instruction, I don’t see how you can claim 21 contact hours. You’ll have to judge for yourself whether you’ve got enough contact time to make up the rest of the 21 hours yourself using the practice test and other materials.

Take notes of what you learn and be prepared to evidence your contact hours if necessary, for example, if your application is audited.

• If you find the pace too slow, you’ll have to speed it up. I played the preview materials at 1.25x speed to get through the material at a fast pace.
• The slides don’t look hugely inspiring from the course preview materials I reviewed. They are text-heavy. However, Joseph Phillips is an engaging presenter. You could easily play the videos without watching them for the most part and use them more like an audio course, diving into the materials when there were concepts you wanted to review.

Additionally, there is no information to say whether the course aligns to the latest PMI Exam Content Outline and frankly it looks identical to when I last looked at the training. I wouldn’t be able to say confidentally that it has been updated.

Best for

Project managers on a budget, who are prepared to self-study and put in the hours themselves. You may find that you need additional materials like an exam simulator in order to feel fully confident for the exam, although many students in the Udemy reviews are very happy with what they have learned and Joseph is known in the industry for the quality of his teaching.

Final thoughts

If you have already taken the Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam, then you might find the content of any of these courses a bit repetitive. Some of the basics overlap between the PMP and PMI-ACP content, as you would expect. That’s not really a big problem; simply use any parts that feel overly familiar to you as an experienced project manager as a refresher.

Frankly, that’s a good thing, as there is a shortage of good quality PMI-ACP training materials out there.

You can also count your PMI-ACP studies towards the PDU requirements for your PMP or CAPM recertification – double win!

If you are a Scrum Master, then you’ll probably find these courses easy because you live and breathe agile project management every day. There might be some PMI-specific things to revise to help you get through the exam, but the agile methodology stuff and basic principles will not be new to you.

Other essential PMI-ACP exam prep materials

Once you’ve chosen a course, you will also want to look at a few other resources to help you get exam confidence.

Successful students tend to use an exam simulator for test practice and study guides (books) to help reinforce what their course has covered.

Go here next:

• Best PMI-ACP exam prep books
• Best PMI-ACP study guides
• Best PMI-ACP exam simulators (coming soon!)

Whichever materials you choose, good luck with your studies!