Short answer: if you are paying for it yourself, PSM I at $200 is the better deal. If your employer is paying for training, take the CSM course they are buying. That is the whole decision for most people, and the price gap is why. What follows is the detail behind it - the exam mechanics, the four-year cost, and an honest section on what hiring managers actually type into a job posting. Every number here was verified against Scrum.org and Scrum Alliance materials in August 2026.
The decision in one table
| PSM I (Scrum.org) | CSM (Scrum Alliance) | |
|---|---|---|
| Course required | No | Yes - 16 hours from a Certified Scrum Trainer |
| Entry price | $200 per attempt | $250-2,495 for the course (test included) |
| Questions | 80 in 60 minutes | 50 in 60 minutes |
| Question types | Multiple choice, multiple answer, true/false | Multiple choice |
| Pass mark | 85% | 74% (37 of 50) |
| Open book | Technically yes, but 45 seconds per question | Yes - Scrum Guide and course materials allowed |
| Proctored | No | No |
| Attempts included | One per password | Two, within 90 days |
| Retake cost | $200 (a new password) | $25 per attempt after the first two |
| Validity | Lifetime | 2 years |
| Renewal | None | 20 SEUs + $100 every 2 years |
| Languages | English (plus Japanese, and Simplified Chinese via scrum.org.cn) | 13, including Spanish, German, Japanese, Polish and Simplified Chinese |
Both exams are grounded in the same 29-page document: the Scrum Guide (2020). That is the single most useful fact in this comparison, and we come back to it.
What you are actually buying
PSM I is an exam, sold on its own. You create a Scrum.org account, buy a password for $200, and take the assessment whenever you like. Nothing else is bundled - no class, no membership, no renewal. Scrum.org publishes a free practice assessment, Scrum Open, that anyone can take as many times as they want before committing the $200.
CSM is a course, with an exam attached. There is no self-study route. You book a class with a Certified Scrum Trainer - 16 hours of training, most classes spanning two to three days - and the fee bundles the test, two attempts and a two-year Scrum Alliance membership. Scrum Alliance's own page puts the price range at $250 to $2,495 USD, set by each trainer and varying by region and format. That range is not a typo: the same credential costs an order of magnitude more in some markets than others.
This structural difference explains almost everything else. Scrum.org sells you a measurement. Scrum Alliance sells you a classroom, and the credential is what falls out of it.
Four-year cost, not sticker price
| Day one | At 4 years | |
|---|---|---|
| PSM I | $200 | $200 - no renewal, no expiry |
| CSM | $250-2,495 course | Course + $100 (renewal at year 2) + $100 due at year 4, plus 20 SEUs per cycle |
The renewal is the part people forget when they compare "$200 versus $500". CSM runs on a two-year cycle from the date you earn it, and both requirements are mandatory together: 20 Scrum Education Units and a $100 fee. SEUs are free if you earn them through webinars, reading and conference attendance, but they are 20 hours you have to spend and log. Over a ten-year career that is $500 and 100 hours to keep a foundational credential alive - or you let it lapse, which is what a large share of holders quietly do.
PSM I has no such bill. Once you pass, it is yours.
Difficulty: the 85% is the whole story
Neither Scrum.org nor Scrum Alliance publishes a pass rate. If a site quotes you "the PSM I pass rate is X%", that number has no source behind it - treat the page accordingly.
What is knowable is the structure, and the structures are aimed at different things:
- CSM is designed to be passable straight after the course. Open book, 74%, 50 questions with 72 seconds each, two attempts inside 90 days, and you have just spent 16 hours with a trainer covering the exact learning objectives. The gate is attending, not passing.
- PSM I is designed to filter. 85% means you can miss 12 of 80. Nominally open book, but 45 seconds per question leaves no time to look anything up beyond a term you already half-know. Multiple-answer items have no partial credit. And a failed attempt costs another $200.
The failure pattern for PSM I is consistent and worth naming: people fail because they answer from how Scrum is run at their company rather than from the Scrum Guide. Story points, velocity, the three daily questions as a requirement, the Scrum Master as a meeting scheduler - none of that is in the Guide, and the exam tests the Guide. Experienced practitioners fail this exam more often than they expect, precisely because they have years of workplace habit to unlearn.
If you want the course route without the Scrum Alliance price tag, there is a middle option: participants in official Scrum.org live classes receive a free PSM I password, and if they take the assessment within 14 days and score under 85%, a second attempt is granted at no extra cost.
Which one employers actually ask for
Here is the honest position: nobody can give you a credible split, because neither vendor publishes job-posting data and no audited independent dataset exists. The "78% of Scrum Master postings require certification" figures circulating on content sites carry no methodology. Ignore them.
Two things are verifiable, and together they get you most of the way:
Volume. Scrum Alliance announced in June 2026 that its community had surpassed 2 million credentials earned. Scrum.org's public certification counter listed just over 1,183,000 Professional Scrum certifications awarded as of April 2026. Scrum Alliance has been certifying since 2002; Scrum.org since 2009. More CVs carry CSM, so more recruiter keyword lists carry CSM. That is not a quality judgement - it is a head start of seven years and a course-driven business model that mints certificants in corporate cohorts of twenty at a time.
Who buys each one. CSM is bought by learning-and-development budgets, which is why it appears in the language HR writes. PSM I is bought by individuals, which is why it appears more often in the language engineering managers write. A posting drafted by a recruiter tends to say "CSM"; a posting drafted by a delivery lead tends to say "CSM, PSM or equivalent".
The ten-minute check that beats any global average. Open your job board of choice, search your own city and role, and read twenty live postings. Count how many name a certification at all, which acronyms appear, and - the decisive detail - how many add "or equivalent". If most of your local postings say "or equivalent", the acronym is a filter-passer and the cheaper one wins. If your target employers name one vendor specifically, that is your answer and no comparison article can override it.
The language gap nobody mentions
CSM is available in thirteen languages: English, Spanish (Castilian and Latin American), Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Danish, Czech, Polish and Russian. Scrum.org keeps its assessments in English, with PSM I additionally offered in Japanese and, through scrum.org.cn, Simplified Chinese - deliberately, so that everyone is measured on identical wording.
If English is not your first language and you are facing 80 questions in 60 minutes, this is not a footnote. It can be the deciding factor, and it is the strongest single argument for CSM that has nothing to do with employers.
So which one
Take PSM I if: you are paying yourself, you are comfortable studying alone, you want the credential to be permanent, you work in an engineering-led organisation, or you simply want the cheapest verifiable proof that you know the Scrum Guide. Read the PSM I exam format and PSM I cost before you buy the password.
Take CSM if: your employer is paying for training, you learn better in a room with a trainer, you need the exam in a language other than English, your target employers name Scrum Alliance specifically, or you want the two-year membership and network that come with it. The full breakdown is on our CSM exam format and CSM eligibility pages.
Take both only if someone else paid for the first. If work put you through a CSM class, adding PSM I for $200 is a cheap second signal for technical hiring managers - and because both exams sit on the same Scrum Guide, the second one costs far less preparation than the first.
Three mistakes that cost real money
- Buying a PSM course when you only wanted the certificate. No course is required for PSM I, ever. A class is worth paying for when you want the instruction and the free retake, not because you think it unlocks the exam.
- Preparing for PSM I with workplace Scrum. Your company's version of Scrum is not on the exam. The 2020 Scrum Guide is, and 85% leaves no room for folklore.
- Letting CSM lapse without deciding to. The renewal is a fee and 20 logged hours, on a clock that starts the day you certify. Renew deliberately or let it go deliberately, but do not discover it expired in the middle of a job search.
Where ExamDeck fits
Both exams reward the same thing: answering from the Scrum Guide under time pressure, not from experience. That is a skill you can drill. Our banks are original scenario questions with a written rationale for every option - PSM I practice questions and CSM practice questions, each with a free sample and no card required. Weighing the wider field rather than these two? Start at which certification should I get, or compare the analysis-side ladder in ECBA vs CCBA vs CBAP.
ExamDeck is an independent study tool, not affiliated with Scrum.org or Scrum Alliance. Fees, exam formats and renewal requirements verified against official Scrum.org and Scrum Alliance materials in August 2026 - always confirm current details with the vendor before booking.