Ultimate AIGP Study Guide 2026

Updated on 9 October 2026, prices checked on 8 October 2026. Written by Bas Hennis.

This AIGP study guide covers what the exam asks, how its questions work, how long preparation takes and what it costs. The exam has 100 questions over four domains, written from Body of Knowledge version 2.1. A beginner needs about 100 hours of study by our estimate. On 22Academy that is about five weeks at three hours a day, for €154 including VAT. The IAPP’s own online training costs $1,195 ($995 for members) whatever your pace. Want to know where you stand before you read on? The free AIGP assessment on 22Academy shows it in about 15 minutes.

I have prepared professionals for certification exams since 2018 on 22Academy, our sister platform within Future Prep. In fact, 22Academy offered a full AIGP course and trial exam before the IAPP held its first AIGP exam. Every figure about another provider in this guide names its source and the date we checked it. Privacy Study Group is not affiliated with or endorsed by the IAPP.

What Is the AIGP?

The AIGP, the Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional, is the IAPP certification for people who govern how AI systems are designed, bought, deployed and used. The IAPP launched it in April 2024. It sits next to the privacy credentials (CIPP/E, CIPP/US, CIPM and CIPT) but covers its own ground: AI governance as a discipline where law, technology, ethics and organisational risk meet.

The exam tests whether you can apply laws, standards and frameworks to a real system in a real organisation. Reciting them is the easy half. That is exactly what the 22Academy AIGP course trains: applying the frameworks to scenarios, question by question.

There are no prerequisites: no course, no degree and no minimum experience. You sit the exam in English through Pearson VUE, online or at a test centre. Your result and score appear on screen as soon as you finish.

AIGP Exam Format and Fees

The exam has 100 multiple-choice questions, of which 85 are scored. The other 15 are unscored trial questions for future exams. Because you cannot tell which they are, treat every question as if it counts. You get 165 minutes, and the pass mark is 300 on a scale up to 500.

Halfway through there is an optional 15-minute break. Whether you take it or not, you submit the first half at that point and cannot return to it. Therefore, finish your flagged questions before you reach the halfway mark. You can rehearse that timing in the full-length, timed trial exam of the 22Academy AIGP course.

What the AIGP Costs

The exam costs $799, or $649 for IAPP members, and you must sit it within a year of buying it. In addition, IAPP membership costs $295 a year and covers the $250 certification maintenance fee you would otherwise pay every two years. A second attempt means buying a new exam, at least seven days after the first. The IAPP’s AIGP candidate handbook page lists the retake at $625, or $475 for members. So the cheapest preparation is the one that tells you before the exam whether you are ready. The free AIGP assessment is the first step.

How we compared preparation costs

Preparation is the variable cost, and a price only means something next to the time it buys. So we compared four situations: a beginner who needs about five weeks, an experienced professional who needs one, someone who stops after a week and someone whose job takes over halfway through.

Every price is the one listed on 8 October 2026. On the 22Academy pricing page, prices include VAT or sales tax where it applies. However, where another provider says nothing about tax, the table says so. We did not convert currencies or estimate anything. You can also test the 22Academy column yourself, because the free AIGP assessment and lesson 1 cost nothing. Besides 22Academy we compared the IAPP’s official online training, Privacy Bootcamp and the highest-rated Udemy course we found that claims the current Body of Knowledge: AI Governance Professional (AIGP) 2026 Complete Training by Saahil Gupta, rated 4.6 from 816 ratings.

Preparation costs compared

	22Academy	IAPP online training	Privacy Bootcamp	Udemy course
Beginner, ready to sit	€154 including VAT (about five weeks)	$1,195, $995 for members; tax not stated	$499; tax not stated	Price varies by country; tax may be added at checkout
Experienced, one week	€37 including VAT	$1,195	$499	The same purchase price
Paid if you stop after week one	€37; the assessment and lesson 1 are free	$1,195	$499	The purchase price
Access and pausing	Weekly or monthly, cancel any time; progress kept for a year	Online in your IAPP account; access period not stated; modules can be stopped and resumed	Lifetime access, including updates	Lifetime access while Udemy holds the licence
Practice questions	More than 2,000	Review questions, number not stated; a separate 100-question practice exam costs $60 ($50 for members)	400+	200+
Trial exam	Full length, timed, analysed by domain and question structure	Practice exam as a PDF with answers and explanations; timing not stated	Full length, timed	Two practice tests; timing not stated
Flashcards	In every lesson, weighted to the topics you find hard, plus a repetition quiz	Not stated	850+	Not stated
Study plan	A personal route built on the assessment	Not stated	Self-paced, no plan	Not stated
Body of Knowledge	Version 2.1	Version not named	Version 2.1	Version 2.1
In the market	Since 2018	The IAPP was founded in 2000	Since 2019	Course updated September 2026
Analysis by question structure	Yes, twenty structures	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated
Confidence against accuracy	Yes	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated
Using your own AI assistant	Yes, prompts on the study cards	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated
Technique for scenario questions	Yes, skills cards	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated

Sources: 22academy.com, the IAPP store and iapp.org, the Privacy Bootcamp AIGP course page and the Udemy course page, all checked on 8 October 2026. “Not stated” means the provider’s own page does not say.

The 2026 Body of Knowledge

The IAPP publishes a Body of Knowledge for every certification: the list of competencies the exam is written from, with a minimum and maximum number of questions per domain. In other words, it is the exam’s table of contents. Read the verbs as well as the topics. For example, “know” and “identify” ask you to recognise something, while “apply”, “perform” and “create” ask you to use it in a situation.

The AIGP version in force is 2.1, effective from 2 February 2026, replacing version 2.0.1. So if your study materials do not cover version 2.1, you are preparing for a different exam. It is a free download from the IAPP’s AIGP page.

Domain	What it covers	Scored questions
I. Foundations of AI governance	What AI is, its risks and harms, responsible AI principles, roles, training and life-cycle policies	16 to 20
II. Laws, standards and frameworks	Existing law applied to AI, the EU AI Act and other AI laws, the OECD principles, the NIST AI RMF and ISO standards	19 to 23
III. Governing AI development	Use case, impact assessment, data governance, training and testing, release, monitoring and documentation	21 to 25
IV. Governing AI deployment and use	Deployment decisions, model types and options, vendor terms, monitoring, incidents, downstream harms and deactivation	21 to 25

What each domain asks

Foundations. Expect the types of risk and harm and the features that set AI apart: opacity, autonomy, speed, scale and probabilistic outputs. Transparency, explainability and accountability also turn up as wrong answers for one another, so learn what separates them.

Laws, standards and frameworks. Existing law comes first: privacy, intellectual property, non-discrimination, consumer protection and product liability. After that, the Body of Knowledge names the EU AI Act, the South Korean AI Basic Law and US federal and state AI laws that apply to private-sector organisations.

Development. Governance while a system is designed, trained, tested and released, with the documentation that proves it. If the documents blur together, start with what a model card contains.

Deployment and use. Governance once a system is chosen and running. Here the recurring trap is responsibility: buying a system from a vendor does not hand the deployer’s duties to the vendor.

The free assessment on 22Academy gives you a score for each of these four domains before you start.es not hand the deployer’s duties to the vendor.ap is responsibility: buying a system from a vendor does not hand the deployer’s duties to the vendor.

How Long Should You Study?

Our estimate is about 100 hours for a beginner, or about five weeks at three hours a day next to a job. The AIGP covers fewer concepts than the CIPP/E and still takes longer, because the material is new to candidates from law and privacy alike. Someone already working in AI governance may need a week. The IAPP recommends at least 30 hours of training and study per certification, as a minimum alongside a course.

Spread your hours by weight, not by chapter. Domains III and IV can each carry up to 25 questions and domain II up to 23, so none of them is optional. Our method for planning study time by domain weight turns the ranges into a schedule.

Find your starting point before you plan. The free AIGP assessment on 22Academy takes 24 questions and about 15 minutes. Afterwards you have a score per domain and an estimate of your study time.

Schedule the Exam Early

Book your exam date before you feel ready. A fixed date concentrates the effort; without one, preparation expands to fill whatever time you give it. To pick a realistic date, use the study-time estimate from the free AIGP assessment.

The rules keep the risk low. You can reschedule or cancel a test-centre appointment up to 48 hours before it, and an online appointment up to 15 minutes after its scheduled start, as long as you stay within the year after purchase. The candidate handbook names no fee for rescheduling.

What to Study: a Practical AIGP Study Guide Framework

Start with the BoK, Then the Textbook

For its first two years the AIGP had no official textbook, so the Body of Knowledge was the curriculum. Now there is one: AI Governance: From Strategy to Execution (see Books Worth Reading). The Body of Knowledge still comes first. Read every performance indicator and ask two questions: could I explain this to a colleague, and could I apply it in a scenario? Where the answer is no, that is where your hours go.

Sort each competency into three piles: learn from scratch, refresh or confirm you already know it. Spending equal time on everything is the classic mistake. Instead, your plan should lean towards your weakest areas. On 22Academy that weighting is built in. The assessment scores you per domain, and the course spends your time where you lose marks.

Know the Frameworks Cold

Three frameworks run through all four domains and come back in applied scenarios.

The EU AI Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, is the centrepiece. Know the risk classes (prohibited, high, limited and minimal), the different duties of providers, deployers, importers and distributors, and the separate rules for general-purpose AI models. Then the requirements themselves: risk management, data governance, technical documentation, conformity assessment, record keeping, human oversight and transparency, plus enforcement and penalties. In the exam you must place a scenario in the right class and role; knowing the list is not enough.

The NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0, January 2023) and its Playbook give the operational backbone. The Body of Knowledge asks for the core functions, categories and subcategories. Our explainer on the four NIST AI RMF functions shows how Govern, Map, Measure and Manage relate. The Generative AI Profile, NIST AI 600-1 from July 2024, is a useful companion at a high level.

The ISO standards: ISO/IEC 22989 on concepts and terminology, ISO/IEC 42001 on AI management systems and ISO/IEC 42005 on AI system impact assessment. Know their purpose and how they relate to each other and to the NIST framework; clause-by-clause detail is not the point.

Add the OECD principles for trustworthy AI, which the Body of Knowledge names directly. For laws outside the EU, such as the South Korean AI Basic Law and US state AI laws, learn the direction of travel rather than every provision. Then test all of it against the more than 2,000 practice questions in the 22Academy AIGP course.

GDPR Intersections

If you hold a CIPP/E, you start ahead. The Body of Knowledge asks how privacy law applies to AI: transparency, choice, lawful basis and purpose limitation; data minimisation and privacy by design; and controller duties such as impact assessments, processors, transfers, data subject rights, automated decision making, breach notification and record keeping. Special categories, biometrics for instance, have their own rules.

In GDPR terms that means Article 22 on automated decisions, Article 35 on data protection impact assessments and the lawful basis for personal data used in training. Familiar territory for CIPP/E holders; use it to move faster through domain II. The free AIGP assessment shows per domain how far that head start takes you.

Books Worth Reading

AI Governance: From Strategy to Execution is the IAPP’s official textbook for the AIGP, published in 2026. Kevin Fumai is lead author and executive editor, with Colin Caleb as executive editor. It is a 388-page digital book, $75 or $65 for members, on the IAPP store. Read it against the Body of Knowledge, not instead of it.

Privacy and AI: Protecting Individuals in the Age of AI by Federico Marengo (2023) is a practical companion on where data protection law meets AI. It suits candidates who already hold a CIPP/E and want to see how GDPR duties become AI governance requirements. Our readers get a 10% discount with code privacystudygroup at checkout.

AI Is Not A Technology Project: Why You Shouldn’t Fire Half Your Workforce (Yet) by Bas Hennis is the book for after you pass. Rather than an exam text, it is written for leaders who are responsible for AI in their organisation. It covers AI governance, gaps in management capability and organisational readiness. You can order it through books2read, which links to the major online bookstores.

Beyond these, read the primary sources: the EU AI Act, the NIST AI RMF, the OECD AI Principles and the relevant GDPR articles. They are free and more reliable than any summary. A book teaches, but it does not test. So pair your reading with the practice questions and trial exam in the 22Academy AIGP course.

AIGP Training Courses

The cost table above puts four routes side by side. Here is what the two in-depth options actually do. Whichever you choose, check two things. Does it follow Body of Knowledge 2.1, and does it test you rather than only teach you?

IAPP Official Training

The IAPP’s self-paced online training costs $1,195, or $995 for members. It is presented as the equivalent of a 13-hour live training, in modules with video, text, interactions and knowledge checks, and it carries 13 CPE credits. You can stop and resume modules as it suits you; the store does not state an access period. No exam voucher is included, and the practice exam is a separate purchase.

If you learn best from a structured course that presents the material in order, it does that job, from the organisation that writes the exam.

22Academy AIGP Course

22Academy starts the other way round: it measures what you know before it teaches you anything. The free assessment maps your gaps per domain, and the course then spends your time where it makes a difference.

It holds more than 2,000 practice questions, each tagged with one of twenty question structures. Every answer records how sure you were as well as whether you were right, and what you got wrong while confident comes back first. Each lesson has flashcards weighted to the topics you find hard, plus a repetition quiz built from them. Study cards give you ready-made prompts for your own AI assistant, and skills cards teach you how to approach scenario questions. A full trial exam closes the course.

It costs €37 a week or €117 a month with a trial exam included, and you can cancel any time. Pause, and we keep your progress for a year after your last paid period; the course stays current while you are away. How it works shows the route from assessment to trial exam. The AIGP course page shows what the course covers.

Why weekly rather than lifetime access? You sit the AIGP once, within months of starting. The IAPP reviews each Body of Knowledge every year and updates it where needed, as it did on 2 February 2026. What decides your result is whether the course matches the version you sit, on the day you sit it. Access in 2030 does not help with an exam in 2026.

Of the providers in our table, 22Academy is the only one that states an analysis by question structure, a confidence measure or guidance on your own AI assistant. Start with the free assessment and lesson 1, no payment needed.

Exam Technique Inside Every Course

Knowing the material and answering the questions are two separate skills. The Exam Question Masterclass that used to be a separate course is now part of every 22Academy course.

AIGP questions come in recognisable shapes: two-statement true or false, best answer, definitions, sequences and scenarios. Each shape has its own trap. A two-statement item rewards judging each statement on its own before you read the options. A best-answer item offers several defensible options and asks for the one that fits the role and the moment in the scenario. On 22Academy the technique for each structure is explained where you meet it. Your results then show whether a lost mark came from the content or from the question type. See the AIGP course for the full method.

AIGP Training for Teams

Preparing a whole team rather than yourself? Future Prep, which runs Privacy Study Group and 22Academy, also trains organisations. It uses a comparable system of assessment, measurement and repetition, with one addition: role-play of real situations at work, so people practise the decisions they will face. Future Prep’s AIGP Exam Preparation is built for teams that want to standardise how they assess AI governance capability. The full training programme adds courses on AI literacy, procurement, HR and security.

Practice Exams: the Core of Your AIGP Study Guide

Practice exams are where preparation becomes real. Reading builds knowledge; testing shows whether you can use it under time pressure.

Start early, and do not save practice tests for the final week. Use the first ones to find your weak domains, study those, then test again. That loop beats reading cover to cover. Your first test can be the free AIGP assessment: 24 questions, about 15 minutes, with a score per domain.

22Academy Practice Exams

The 22Academy AIGP trial exam is full length and timed, written to Body of Knowledge 2.1. Afterwards its report analyses your result by domain and by question structure, so you see both what to review and which question types cost you marks. We build it to be harder than the real exam, on purpose. One trial exam is included in the monthly plan. Our advice: do not book the real exam until the trial exam says you are ready.

We stand behind that standard. Suppose you pass our trial exam at your first attempt, sit the real exam within two weeks and fail it. Then you get a free trial exam or your money back for the one you paid for. The conditions are in the FAQ. Already booked your exam? The trial exam also costs €42 on its own, or €27 with a subscription; see pricing.

IAPP Practice Exam

The IAPP sells an AIGP practice exam of 100 questions with answer explanations, for $60 or $50 for members. It is useful for getting used to how the IAPP phrases its questions. Take it under a timer you set yourself about two weeks before your exam. Then study the explanations for the wrong options as closely as for the right one. For more practice than 100 questions, the 22Academy AIGP course holds more than 2,000.

A Warning About Exam Dumps

You will find websites selling “real AIGP exam questions” or “100% pass guaranteed” question banks. These are exam dumps: stolen content, often inaccurate and out of date. The candidate handbook allows the IAPP to invalidate results, ban candidates from future exams and revoke existing certifications for misconduct of this kind.

They also do not work. A dump trains you to recognise specific questions, whereas the AIGP rewards applied understanding of scenarios you have not seen before. If you are entering a profession built on governance, ethics and accountability, start as you mean to go on. The honest alternative is practice written to the Body of Knowledge, such as the 22Academy AIGP course.

Useful Resources for Your AIGP Study Guide

None of these sell exam preparation. All of them deepen your grasp of what the exam tests.

The OECD AI Principles, adopted in 2019 and updated in 2024, are named in the Body of Knowledge. Around them, the OECD AI Policy Observatory collects policy and implementation material by country.

The NIST AI Resource Center hosts the AI RMF, its Playbook and the Generative AI Profile. It is useful across domains I, III and IV.

The EU AI Act on EUR-Lex is the official adopted text. Use it, not earlier drafts or summaries.

The ISO standards 22989, 42001 and 42005 are sold through national standards bodies. You do not need to buy them for the exam; know their purpose and structure.

UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, adopted in November 2021, gives a global ethical frame that complements the EU AI Act and the NIST framework.

Reading the sources is step one. Applying them under time pressure is step two, and that is what the 22Academy AIGP course trains.

Join a Study Group

Studying alone for a certification exam is harder than it needs to be. Our AIGP study groups on Facebook and LinkedIn bring together candidates at every stage and certified professionals who share what they learned. Members post questions, discuss difficult topics and report back after their exams. The groups also regularly share scenarios and quiz questions to practise on. Joining costs nothing.

Also, if you can find two or three people on a similar timeline, form a small group inside the larger one. A study partner who keeps asking “but why?” moves you from recognising an answer to understanding it. Want to measure that progress? Each of you can take the free AIGP assessment and compare scores per domain.

Taking the AIGP Exam

Remote Proctoring vs. Test Centre

You can sit the exam online through Pearson VUE’s OnVUE platform or in person at a Pearson VUE test centre. Neither is better in principle; they carry different risks.

Online is convenient but adds variables. Members of our study groups have reported trouble scrolling, webcams failing despite a passed system check, long waits for the proctor and small text on screen. The room rules are strict: a clear desk, no second monitor and nobody else in the room.

If you choose online, do a full dry run the day before. First, charge your mouse and keyboard and learn how to enlarge text on screen. Then disconnect docking stations and extra monitors, because the proctor may ask you to show they are gone.

A test centre removes the technology risk and adds travel. Book early if you want a particular date and place. Either way, sit the timed trial exam in the 22Academy AIGP course at the same hour as your appointment. That way exam day holds fewer surprises.

Exam Day Strategy

Read the question before the scenario. Scenarios carry detail that does not matter, and knowing what you are looking for saves time. Our three-pass method for scenario questions works this through step by step.

Eliminate first, then choose. Removing the options you know are wrong is faster and more reliable than hunting for the right one.

Do not dwell. Flag a question that is taking too long and move on, but clear your flags before the halfway submission, because you cannot return to the first half. Budget about 90 seconds a question and you keep time in hand; our article on exam pacing gives a full routine.

Change an answer only when you can name the reason, such as a word you misread. For the last seven days before the exam, see our final-week routine. The trial exam report in the 22Academy AIGP course shows which of these habits still cost you marks.

After the AIGP Exam

Your result and score appear on screen when you finish. If you pass, the IAPP sends your digital certificate by email through Accredible within two weeks. Your certification is in good standing once you hold IAPP membership or have paid the certification maintenance fee; you can arrange either before or after the exam.

If you do not pass, you are not the first. You buy a new exam, which costs $625 as a retake or $475 for members. You can sit it at least seven days after your attempt. Meanwhile, use the time on your weakest domains. The free AIGP assessment shows them per domain, and the 22Academy trial exam report also shows them per question structure.

Where the certificate takes you depends on the job you want. The 22Academy career plan shows for each role which certifications it takes, in which order and for how long. For an AI governance manager the route runs from the CIPP/E to the AIGP. 22Academy prepares you for the CIPP/E, CIPM, CIPP/US and CIPT with the same method; see all certifications.

Maintaining Your Certification

Your certification runs for two years from the date you passed. To keep it, you report 20 continuing privacy education credits per two-year term and keep the maintenance fee covered: $250 per term for non-members, included in IAPP membership. You do not sit the exam again.

Credits come from training, conferences, webinars and other activities that qualify under the IAPP’s CPE policy, as long as they fit the AIGP Body of Knowledge.

Where to Start

Download the AIGP Body of Knowledge, version 2.1, from the IAPP. Then take the free AIGP assessment on 22Academy to see where you stand per domain and how long you need. Build your plan around the gaps with the 22Academy AIGP course. Come back to this guide as your preparation develops.

Good luck. When you are done, share your experience in the study group; the candidates after you will gain from it, as you gained from those before you.

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