Refund policy

1. Scope and general position

This policy applies to every fee paid to the Council — examination fees, cohort fees, revalidation fees, and membership fees. Fees paid to any third party for preparation are governed by that party's own terms; the Council is not a party to that contract and has no liability under it.

Section 2 states where your own law overrides this policy. Sections 3 to 6 concern examination and cohort fees. Membership fees are dealt with separately, in section 8.

Fees are non-refundable once paid, except where this policy expressly provides otherwise. Refunds and extensions granted outside these terms are at the Council's sole discretion, are made without admission of liability, and do not create a precedent or entitlement in any other case.

2. Where your own law gives you more

If the consumer protection law of the country you live in gives you better cancellation rights than this policy does, that law applies and this policy gives way to it. Candidates in the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, among others, have a statutory period in which a distance purchase may be cancelled; where it applies, it applies whatever the schedule below says.

The Council does not ask candidates to declare a jurisdiction and does not run two versions of this policy. A right you hold by law is one you hold whether or not you told us where you live, and asking would change nothing except the number of questions between you and an examination.

3. The access period

There is no sitting date to book or to move. Once the fee has settled, the examination may be begun on any day of the 90 days that follow. The period runs from the payment, or from the redemption of a licence, and never from before examinations open. A fee paid earlier has its full 90 days from the opening day. Once begun, the examination is taken in one sitting under the conditions in §6 of the terms of use, whether or not the period ends meanwhile.

An access period that ends without the examination being begun lapses. Nothing is refunded, save under section 5. A registration is personal and cannot be moved to another person at any point, as §5 of the terms of usestates.

4. Cancelling

• Before the examination is begun, within the access period. 75% of the fee is refunded. The Council retains 25% as an administration fee.
• Once the examination has been begun. No refund. Beginning is the moment a paper is drawn and its time starts, and a result, including a fail, is the service purchased.
• Once the access period has ended unused, without a claim under section 5. No refund. The examination was held open. For a fee paid before 26 October 2026, section 3 says what applies instead.

Where the fee was covered by a licence code, from an employer or from the Council, nothing was paid by you and so nothing is refunded to you. Cancelling releases the examination, and the code cannot be used again.

What 75% is calculated on. The amount you actually paid, not the published fee — if a Founding Referral Credit reduced what you were charged, the refund is 75% of the reduced amount, and the credit itself is restored to your account unspent. A referral credit is only ever earned once the referred candidate has sat their examination, and an examination that has been begun cannot be refunded, so an earned credit is never withdrawn by a refund to anyone.

5. Exceptional circumstances

Where something outside your control prevents you from sitting, the Council may set the schedule above aside and extend the access period at no charge, or refund the fee in full. The Council treats the following as exceptional circumstances:

• serious illness or a medical condition that prevents you attending, or prevents you performing normally on the day;
• bereavement;
• a domestic crisis, or another form of significant personal hardship;
• a traumatic experience;
• an unavoidable legal or military obligation;
• civil unrest, extreme weather, or a comparable event where you live.

When to claim. A claim may be made at any time during the access period, and for up to 2 calendar days after it ends. No claim is accepted once a result has been issued. That cut-off is not administrative tidiness: a claim made after seeing a mark is a claim about the mark, and the route for that is the appeals procedure, not this one.

How to claim. Write to hello@aiassurancecouncil.org with your registration reference, what happened, and independent documentary evidence of it. The Council answers within 7 working days of a complete application. Claims are handled confidentially and the evidence is seen only by those deciding the claim. A decision under this section is final and is not a ground of appeal.

6. Where the Council cannot deliver the examination

The Council may be unable to deliver an examination for reasons outside its control — a failure of the examination or proctoring platform, the withdrawal of a supplier, civil unrest, extreme weather, or comparable events. Where that happens it will tell you as soon as it can, and then the choice is yours. You may take a fresh access period at no charge, or a full refund of the fee paid. A failure on the Council's side during an examination you have begun is dealt with the same way. Write to hello@aiassurancecouncil.org with your registration reference.

That choice is your sole and exclusive remedy. The Council is not liable for travel, accommodation, preparation or other third-party costs, for lost time, or for any other loss arising from a cancellation or a postponement.

7. Failure, resits, and withdrawal

A resit is charged at the full standard examination fee, or at 50% of the fee paid where the candidate holds a current membership at the date of the resit. There is no refund, partial refund, or credit for an unsuccessful attempt: the assessment was delivered and marked. Candidates who believe an examination was incorrectly marked or improperly administered must use the appeals procedure rather than seeking a refund.

The fee for the Certified Applied AI Associate assessment, where one is charged, is refundable in full on request until the first attempt has started and not after. A code that waived the fee has no cash value and is not refunded, exchanged, or reissued once used.

No refund of any kind arises where a credential is suspended or withdrawn for breach of the code of conduct, misuse of the certification marks, or misrepresentation, or where a candidate is excluded from an examination for misconduct.

8. Membership fees

Membership fees are non-refundable and are not transferable to another person. Membership runs for a fixed term from the date it is granted, and no pro-rata refund arises where it ends early — on lapse, on resignation, or on termination by the Council for non-payment or for breach of the code of conduct.

Membership does not renew automatically. The Council stores no card and charges no renewal without an instruction, so there is no unwanted renewal to refund: a membership that is not renewed simply lapses on its expiry date. The Council writes before a term ends.

Where the first year of membership came included with a paid examination, it carries no separate fee and no separate refund; a refund of the examination fee under sections 4 to 6 ends the membership granted with it.

Where a credential is maintained by membership, allowing the membership to lapse expires the credential. That is not a refundable event: nothing has been withdrawn, the register shows the entry as expired, and revalidating restores it.

9. Training fees

A fee for a place on a Council training programme is refunded at 75% where the request reaches the Council before the first session of the cohort. Once the first session has begun, no refund arises, whether or not the participant attends, and a place cannot be moved to a later cohort or to another person save under section 5.

Where the Council cancels a cohort or cannot deliver it, the fee is refunded in full, or, if the participant prefers, the place is moved to the next cohort of the same programme.

A training fee is separate from every examination fee. Completing a programme earns a certificate of completion, which is not a credential, and a refund of a training fee has no effect on any examination or credential.

10. Eligibility is the candidate's responsibility

It is the candidate's responsibility to confirm before paying that they meet the published eligibility requirements and that the certification is appropriate for their purpose. No refund arises because a candidate later concludes that the certification does not suit their needs, is not recognised by a particular employer or authority, or does not produce an expected outcome.

11. Chargebacks

Raise any billing dispute with the Council first. Initiating a chargeback without doing so may result in suspension of the candidate's registration and any credential held pending resolution, and the Council reserves the right to recover the chargeback amount and any associated fees.

12. How to request a refund

Write to hello@aiassurancecouncil.org with the candidate name and examination reference, or for training the name and email used to enrol. A cancellation under section 4 must reach the Council before the examination is begun and within the access period. Any other request must reach it within 14 days of the event relied on. Requests outside those limits will not be considered. Decisions are issued in writing within 20 business days. Approved refunds are made to the original payment method within 30 days, in the currency paid; the Council is not responsible for exchange-rate movement or payment provider charges.

13. This issue

Issue 2.4 was published on 17 October 2026 and is in force on publication. The AI Literacy Certificate is now the Certified Applied AI Associate, the same assessment under a new name, so section 7 refers to the fee for the Certified Applied AI Associate assessment. Nothing else changes.

Issue 2.3 was published on 5 October 2026 and is in force on publication, because it adds terms for a new fee and takes nothing away from any fee already paid. Section 9 sets the refund of a training fee. Sections 10 to 13 were 9 to 12 in issue 2.2 and are otherwise unchanged.

Issue 2.2 was published on 5 October 2026 and is in force on publication, because it takes nothing away from a fee already paid. It follows the end of booked sitting dates. Section 3 replaces the sitting date and the free date change with an access period in which the examination may be begun on any day. Section 4 allows a cancellation at any time before the examination is begun, where issue 2.1 required notice before a sitting. Section 6 offers a fresh access period, rather than another sitting, where the Council cannot deliver the examination. Section 3 adds the lapse of an access period left unused. No examination fee had been paid when it was published, so it applies in full to every fee.

Issue 2.1 was published on 25 September 2026 to take effect on 16 October 2026, and issue 2.2 replaces it before that date. Its one change from issue 2.0, the refund of the AI Literacy assessment fee in section 7, is carried into this issue unchanged. Issue 2.0 was published on 6 September 2026 and took effect on 1 October 2026.

Contact

Questions about this policy should be addressed to hello@aiassurancecouncil.org.