Claude Academy vs Partner Academy: two training sites, and only one leads to a certification exam

Claude Academy vs Partner Academy: three names and where each leads

Anthropic’s pages use three names for its training sites. Claude Academy is academy.claude.com. Anthropic Partner Academy, often just Partner Academy, is anthropic-partners.skilljar.com. Anthropic Academy is the third, and no single address goes with it: on pages read on 10 November 2026, it labels Partner Academy, the old course site and the certification programme.

One Anthropic page shows the split. On claude.com/partners, the menu’s Claude Academy link goes to academy.claude.com, while “Check out Anthropic Academy to get Claude certified” links to Partner Academy’s certifications page. Cred Farmer’s advice is to read the address in a link, not the name on it.

Anthropic Academy names more than one thing

Anthropic Academy is a label Anthropic has given to more than one thing, so a page that uses it needs reading in context. Anthropic’s own pages have used it for partner training, for a consumer portal and for the certification programme.

• 10 November 2026. Partner Academy’s four exam pages carry Anthropic Academy in their titles and describe their prep courses as free “on the Anthropic Academy”. The old site’s header reads Anthropic Academy.
• 23 July 2026. Anthropic’s certification article counts more than 400,000 people who had completed Claude training that year through Anthropic Partner Academy, “our free training platform for partners”.
• 11 June 2026. Anthropic’s post on DXC calls Anthropic Academy “our training and certification program for partner engineers”.
• 12 March 2026. The Claude Partner Network launch post says joiners will have a Partner Portal “where we’ll share our Anthropic Academy training materials”.
• No date printed. Partner Academy’s welcome transcript calls Anthropic Academy “our external consumer-facing portal”. The Certification Terms say the programme was “formally known as the Anthropic Academy”.

The DXC post’s meaning is a programme for partner engineers, and the transcript’s is a consumer portal. No page Cred Farmer read says which use is current.

Who each academy is for, in its own words

Claude Academy’s FAQ says it is free and needs no paid plan and no work account, and that “A personal Claude account works”. Partner Academy’s four role paths each say “Open to Claude Partner Network members”. Its eligibility page opens the exams to people who work at organisations in the network.

On Claude Academy, its FAQ says, you can browse the catalogue without signing in, and a free Claude account saves progress and earns completion badges. The same FAQ tells people whose company is in Anthropic’s partner program to keep using “the partner training site”.

Partner Academy’s certifications page calls the credential “built exclusively for Anthropic Partners”. Pearson VUE’s Anthropic page says of the prep courses: “Training is available to members of the Claude Partner Network”. If your employer is outside the network, the eligibility page says “You can’t register for a certification exam” and points you to Claude Academy.

Studying without Partner Network access covers what stays open outside the network, and the Claude certification eligibility guide covers who may register.

Is there an Anthropic Academy certification?

The certifications Anthropic’s pages tie to the Anthropic Academy name are the four Claude certification exams. Partner Academy’s exam pages carry that name, and the Terms say the programme was “formally known as the Anthropic Academy”. Claude Academy issues none: its FAQ calls the exams “a separate paid, proctored program”.

The four are Claude Certified Associate - Foundations (CCAO-F), Claude Certified Developer - Foundations (CCDV-F), Claude Certified Architect - Foundations (CCAR-F) and Claude Certified Architect - Professional (CCAR-P). Anthropic’s certification FAQ answers “How do I get access?” with “Go to Anthropic Partner Academy.”

Partner Academy’s certifications page says CCAO-F, CCDV-F and CCAR-P include updated content from 7 December 2026, with updated guides due on 17 November 2026. That notice omits CCAR-F. Claude certification changes keeps the dated record.

Both academies issue course certificates as well. Partner Academy’s course pages list a “Certificate of completion”, and Claude Academy’s say whether a course carries a “Completion badge”. Anthropic’s eligibility page sets a Claude Academy certificate of completion apart from a certification: “These are two different things, and the names are close enough that people mix them up.”

Certificate, certification and badge compared sets out what each one proves, and is there a Claude Code certification answers the same question for Claude Code courses.

Claude Academy courses on Partner Academy’s learning paths

Partner Academy’s four role learning paths each send you to Claude Academy at least once. On 10 November 2026, course 4 of every path, Choosing the right Claude model, was marked “On Claude Academy, about 10 min”. The Claude Associate path also sends course 10, Claude for your function, there, for about 30 minutes.

By Cred Farmer’s count of the four path pages, 5 of their 42 numbered courses are marked as on Claude Academy. That is 2 of 10 on Claude Associate and 1 of 10 on Claude Developer. Claude Architect and Claude Forward Deployed Engineer have 1 of 11 each. Each path’s optional Go deeper list names more Claude Academy items.

Each path page says “Each course you complete on this site counts toward the path”. None says whether a numbered course finished on Claude Academy counts. The Claude learning path post lays out all four paths, and Claude certification prep courses lists the exam prep, exam by exam.

Whether the free courses are enough is for are Anthropic Academy courses enough. For a routine, see the Claude certification study guide, the Claude certification study plan and the practice exams guide.

The old course site, anthropic.skilljar.com, closes in early December 2026

Anthropic’s old course site, anthropic.skilljar.com, will “no longer be available in early December 2026”, its banner said on 10 November 2026. Claude Academy’s FAQ says to import your history into Claude Academy and save any certificate PDFs before then. Partner Academy is untouched: the FAQ says the closure “doesn’t affect” anthropic-partners.skilljar.com.

The FAQ says “Nearly all your courses and all your certificates carry over”, and old certificates appear as completion badges with their original dates. The import works only when your Claude account uses the same email as the old site. Two accounts, one on each Skilljar site, are not merged: “Neither moves over on its own, and we can’t merge them.”

The banner sends partners on: “Partners: use Anthropic Partner Academy”. Neither the banner nor the FAQ gives an exact day, so Cred Farmer’s advice is to save any certificate PDF you want now rather than in December.

Key takeaways

• Claude Academy, at academy.claude.com, is Anthropic’s public training site. Its FAQ says it is free, with no paid plan or work account needed.
• Anthropic Partner Academy, at anthropic-partners.skilljar.com, is where the four Claude certification exams are registered. Its eligibility page opens the exams to people who work at Claude Partner Network organisations.
• Anthropic Academy names more than one thing. On pages read on 10 November 2026, it labels Partner Academy and the old site anthropic.skilljar.com, and the Certification Terms use it for the certification programme.
• A Claude Academy completion badge is not a Claude certification. Claude Academy’s FAQ calls the two “two different things”.
• On 10 November 2026, each of Partner Academy’s four role paths sent at least one course to Claude Academy. That is 5 of 42 numbered courses, on Cred Farmer’s count.
• anthropic.skilljar.com closes in early December 2026. Claude Academy’s FAQ says to import your history and save certificate PDFs before then.