How Much Does the N10-009 Exam Cost, and in Which Languages?

The short answer: N10-008 is retired — the live exam is N10-009 at around US$404

Start with the fact that changes the question: CompTIA retired the N10-008 exam on December 20, 2024. You can no longer book it, buy a voucher for it, or sit it anywhere. The Network+ exam you can actually take today is N10-009, and its US list price is currently around US$404 for the exam voucher — hedged deliberately, because CompTIA prices by region and adjusts its list over time, so confirm the current figure on CompTIA's own store page for your country before you budget.

That price buys one exam attempt: up to 90 questions in 90 minutes, including performance-based questions, with a passing score of 720 on CompTIA's 100–900 scale. Everything else in this post — languages, bundles, total cost — is about that live exam.

What languages can you take Network+ in?

English is the primary language of the exam, and it is the version every piece of study material is written against. Beyond English, CompTIA offers its core exams in a rotating set of additional languages delivered through Pearson VUE — Network+ has historically been among the exams translated into several major languages, but the exact list changes as translations are added, revised, or withdrawn between exam versions.

That is why you should treat any fixed language list on a third-party site (including older pages about N10-008) as out of date by default. The authoritative list is the one on the N10-009 exam page and in the Pearson VUE booking flow, where the available languages appear as an actual booking option for your test centre or online proctoring. Check there, at booking time, for the current list.

One practical note: if English is not your first language but you work in IT in English, most candidates find the English exam the safer choice anyway. The questions use CompTIA's specific terminology, the translations occasionally lag the English revision, and the study ecosystem — books, courses, practice questions — is overwhelmingly English. Take a translated version if it genuinely helps you; just decide with your eyes open.

What the voucher price does and does not include

The headline price is the exam attempt only. Around it sits a small economy of options worth understanding before you pay:

• Exam voucher alone — one attempt. Fail it, and the retake is another full-price voucher (CompTIA's policy allows immediate rebooking after the first and second failures, with a 14-day wait from the third attempt onward).
• Retake-assurance bundles — CompTIA sells voucher packages that include a retake at a discount over buying two vouchers separately. Economically this is insurance: worth it if your mock scores are borderline, expensive peace of mind if you are clearing the pass mark comfortably.
• Training bundles — vouchers packaged with CompTIA's own CertMaster learning products. The bundle discount is real, but only if you would actually use that specific training ecosystem.
• Academic pricing — students at eligible institutions can buy through CompTIA's academic store at a significantly lower price. If you are enrolled anywhere qualifying, this is the single biggest legitimate discount available — check eligibility before paying list price.

The real total cost of the certification

The voucher is the largest single line item, but it is not the whole bill. A realistic total-cost view for a self-studying candidate looks like this: the exam voucher (around US$404 at US list), one good study resource (a book or course — anywhere from modest to a few hundred dollars depending on format), practice exams, and possibly lab access for hands-on work. Candidates with employer sponsorship or academic pricing can cut the total sharply; candidates who fail once and rebook at full price feel the voucher line twice, which is why the retake-assurance maths above matters.

Two costs people forget: your time (Network+ typically takes a working beginner a few months of regular study — treat the hours as a real investment), and renewal. Network+ is valid for three years, and staying certified through CompTIA's continuing education programme carries its own fees and activity requirements over each cycle.

A warning from the retirement itself: vouchers expire with their exam

The N10-008 retirement taught a costly lesson that every N10-009 candidate should absorb. CompTIA vouchers are bought for a specific exam version, and when N10-008 retired on December 20, 2024, unredeemed N10-008 vouchers lost their purpose — there was no exam left to spend them on, and a voucher does not automatically roll forward to the next version. Candidates who had bought early and studied slowly were left holding paper for a dead exam.

Two habits protect you from repeating that. First, buy the voucher late, not early: CompTIA vouchers typically carry a validity window (commonly twelve months from purchase — confirm the terms on the voucher you buy), and the exam version has its own lifecycle on top of that, so the safest purchase is the one made when your mock scores say you are nearly ready. Second, watch the version lifecycle: CompTIA refreshes Network+ roughly every three years, and retirement dates are announced well in advance. N10-009 is the current version with most of its life ahead of it — but "most" is not "all", and the booking page, not a blog post, is where the live dates live.

Spending less without gambling

The legitimate savings levers are boring and effective: academic-store pricing if you qualify, employer reimbursement (many helpdesk and MSP employers pay for Network+ outright — ask before you pay), bundle maths done honestly against your mock scores, and free or library study resources for the reading layer. The illegitimate lever — grey-market "discount vouchers" sold far below list — risks a voucher that was fraudulently obtained or region-locked, and a certification revoked if CompTIA traces it. On a US$404 exam, that is a bad trade.

Price and language list alike, the rule is the same: confirm both on CompTIA's current N10-009 pages when you book, because those are the only versions of the facts that your booking will actually honour. Timed, objective-scored practice tests are the cheapest way to find out whether you are ready before the voucher money is spent — free ones are available on Study4Pass alongside the paid ecosystems. Use that study time on the topics candidates trip over — hybrid LAN topologies, MAC address tables, and SNMP for network device management. Transport-layer basics deserve the same care: knowing the characteristics shared by TCP and UDP is the kind of objective that quietly costs marks when it is only half-learned.

For the current objectives, languages and pricing, see CompTIA's official Network+ certification page.