OpenAI Academy badges & certificates

Learning plan

About 3 hours of focused study, split into 3 phases. Pick your weekly pace and the timeline adjusts.

Estimated finish: 1 weeks

What the exam covers

Source: official exam guide. Weights can change, so check before you start.

Before you start

• A ChatGPT account. You sign in to OpenAI Academy with it, and badges are tied to that account's email address
• One recurring task from your own job to use as practice material in the later courses

1. Week 1 · 1 h

   AI Foundations

   • Explain in plain language what a large language model is and why it can produce confident but wrong answers
   • Give ChatGPT clear instructions with useful context, and review the output before using it
   • Pass the course assessment at 80% or higher to earn the badge

   Use: OpenAI Academy courses

2. Week 1 · 1 h

   Applied AI Foundations

   • Break one recurring work task into steps and mark where ChatGPT helps and where a human review point is needed
   • Turn that breakdown into a repeatable workflow you can rerun each week

   Hands-on: Pick a weekly task such as meeting notes to action items, run it through your new workflow twice, and record what you changed between runs.

   Use: OpenAI Academy courses

3. Week 1 · 1 h

   Agents and Workflows, plus assessments

   • Direct an agent through a structured multi-step task, setting clear boundaries and checkpoints
   • Save the prompts and steps that worked so they can be reused
   • Pass every course assessment in the pathway to qualify for the certificate of completion

   Use: OpenAI Academy courses · OpenAI Cookbook (optional, for builders)

You're ready to book when…

• You hold badges for all three courses
• You have one documented workflow from your own job with defined human review points
• You can explain why a badge is not an OpenAI Certification

Exam tips

• Each assessment draws 10-20 questions from a 50-question bank and needs 80% to pass. A retake gives you a freshly randomised set.
• Sign in with the right ChatGPT account before starting, because badges are tied to one email and accounts can't currently be merged.
• OpenAI says badges and certificates of completion are not OpenAI Certifications and don't guarantee eligibility for one.