Linux Professional Insitute (LPI) Adjusting Exam Prices

In case you missed this information in our newsletter (subscribe here), we have some news to share about price changes.

These changes are effective beginning July 17, 2023. If you only purchase exam vouchers in USD at the current Tier 1 price of $200 ($120 for Essentials), you can ignore this announcement.

Over the course of the past few years, LPI has been adjusting its exam voucher prices according to the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI). Last year we went further and started using the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index in order to help increase access to our certifications in countries with lower income levels, as detailed in this article. LPI is a mission-driven, not-for-profit certification body. Our mission is to promote open source by supporting the people who use it.

Despite all of those efforts, we have decided to adjust exam prices for several reasons. First, inflation has increased the cost of delivering the exams, which has strained our budget. Second, the current pricing structure is creating difficulties for partners in countries with lower HDI scores who are struggling to maintain margins. In addition, currency fluctuations against the U.S. dollar have created disparities in Tier 1 countries, requiring a re-evaluation of pricing. Finally, the complex system of multiple pricing tiers has proven difficult to manage effectively, creating the need for a more streamlined approach.

As a result, LPI has made significant changes to its exam pricing strategy. While maintaining regional pricing, most countries still have lower prices compared to the UN IHDI pricing prior to 2022. The pricing structure has been simplified to only three USD tiers, one EUR, and one JPY price. Adjustments within the Eurozone align with the parity of the US dollar. The new pricing strategy also allows for margin to support partners in tier 2 and tier 3 countries.

The retail price tiers (Professional / Essentials exams) are:

• EUR: €176 / €110
• USD:
  • Tier 1: $200 / $120
  • Tier 2: $165 / $100
  • Tier 3: $130 / $80
• JPY: ¥15000 / ¥10000

Regional pricing, starting July 17th, is:

• USA & Canada: Tier 1 USD
• Europe: Tier 1 USD & EUR
• APAC: Tier 2 USD, JPY, and some Tier 1 USD (Taiwan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand)
• Middle East: Tier 2 USD, and some Tier 1 (Israel, Qatar)
• Latin America and the Caribbean: Tier 2 USD
• Africa: Tier 3 USD

LPI continues to help its partners develop sustainable business models. We encourage our partners to create business models that focus on projects that the partner can compete for and win, where almost 90-95% of the revenue goes entirely to the partner and 5-10% is used to purchase LPI exams. This means that we provide the opportunity for the partner to be profitable and also to use a portion of their earnings to fund exams for their clients, employees, etc.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss business development ideas, please send an email to partner-support@lpi.org.