Security+ CEU Requirements: Caps by Activity and a 50-CEU Plan

To renew CompTIA Security+ with continuing education, you need 50 CEUs earned inside your three-year renewal cycle, uploaded to your CompTIA certification account, and the CE fee paid by your expiration date. Most activity types also have their own Security+ cap, so the work is picking a mix that reaches 50 without hitting one.

Below: the cap for each activity, the proof CompTIA asks for and a sample plan. For how the CE program works across all CompTIA certifications, see our guide to CompTIA CE renewal and how CEUs work.

Security+ CEU requirements at a glance

• 50 CEUs per cycle. CompTIA’s Earn CEUs page lists Security+ at 50.
• A three-year cycle that starts on the date you earned the certification. CompTIA’s renewal cycle page gives the example of passing on January 15, 2025 and renewing by January 15, 2028.
• Relevance. At least 50% of an activity’s content must relate to one or more Security+ exam objectives (for work experience, 50% of the work you do). CompTIA says it looks at more than topics, including the cognitive level of the content, and it makes the final call.
• The CE fee. CompTIA’s CE fees page lists $150 in total for the three-year period for Security+, due by your expiration date. Its CE FAQ says you can pay annually or all at once, payments are not refunded, and paying the fee alone does not renew the certification.

Security+ CEU caps by activity

CompTIA publishes a maximum for each activity type per three-year cycle. Here are the Security+ figures from its Training and Higher Education, IT Industry Participation, Publishing and Work Experience pages.

Activity	How CEUs are earned	Security+ maximum per cycle
Training course	1 per hour	50
College or ACE course	10 per 3 to 4 credit-hour class	50
Live webinar	1 per hour attended	10
Conference	1 per hour attended	10
Teach or mentor	1 per hour	20
Create instructional materials	2 per hour	20
SME in a CompTIA exam development workshop	1 per workshop hour	50
Article or white paper (4+ pages)	4 each	16
Blog post (500+ words)	1 each	16
Published book	The amount in CompTIA’s table	40
Work experience	3 per year	9

Webinars and conferences top out at 10 each. Training, college and ACE courses can each cover the full 50 on their own.

Renewing without counting CEUs

CompTIA’s How to Renew page lists four single-activity routes: complete CertMaster CE, pass the latest version of the exam, earn a higher-level CompTIA certification, or earn a non-CompTIA IT industry certification. The fees page says the first three need no CE fee, and CompTIA renews the certification automatically when you complete one of them.

For Security+, the higher-level certifications are CySA+, PenTest+ and SecurityX. Going the other way, renewing Security+ also fully renews Network+ and A+ (see Renewing Multiple Certifications). Non-CompTIA certifications earn CEUs only if they appear on CompTIA’s preapproved list for Security+ and you earn or renew them inside your cycle.

A worked 50-CEU plan

Say you earned Security+ in March 2025, so your cycle ends in March 2028. This mix reaches 50 and stays under every cap:

1. Work experience: 9 CEUs. Submit 3 at the end of each cycle year, with an employer letter for each.
2. Live webinars: 10 CEUs. Ten hours across three years fills the cap.
3. One security conference: 10 CEUs. Ten hours of sessions where at least half the content maps to the exam objectives fills the conference cap. Hours past that earn nothing more for Security+.
4. Training courses: 21 CEUs. Two or three online courses adding up to 21 hours, each with at least half its content on the objectives.

That totals 50. CompTIA’s FAQ says submitted CEUs are accepted automatically and audited at random. If an audit removes an item late in the cycle, you are short. Plan a few hours past 50, and put the extra in training, since its cap is the full 50.

The proof CompTIA asks for

• Training course: a detailed outline of the content, plus a completion certificate with your name, the course name, the provider, the completion date and the hours.
• Webinar or conference: a detailed outline of the content (for a conference, each session), plus a completion certificate or registration email with your name, the webinar or session name, the date and the hours. On-demand webinars and YouTube videos count only with proof of registration or a completion certificate.
• College or ACE course: a content outline and a transcript showing the course, the date and semester, and the credit hours.
• Work experience: a letter on company letterhead with your name, job title, the CE year, the tasks you performed and your supervisor’s signature. CompTIA says work orders, performance reports and resumes are not valid.
• Teaching: a lesson plan or syllabus naming you as instructor, a description of the content and the date. Mentoring needs a signed document from the mentee.

Common Security+ renewal mistakes

• Counting a whole conference. A three-day event can run 18 hours or more, but only 10 conference CEUs count toward Security+ per cycle.
• Off-objective content. Leadership, career and general IT sessions can fall below the 50% relevance line.
• Paying the fee too early. CompTIA advises against paying until you have earned CEUs and are ready to upload them, because fees are not refunded.
• Activities outside the cycle. Anything completed before your cycle started does not count.
• Submitting the same course twice. CompTIA lets you submit the same training course only once.

Keeping track without a spreadsheet

When you log an activity in MyCertRenewal, it applies CompTIA’s published categories and limits for Security+. Because the 50% relevance rule depends on content, a Security+ row such as a conference shows as “Counts if it checks out” and stays out of your totals until you confirm it. Once a cap is used up, the row says “At its limit”. You can keep spare activities with Hold as reserve, and renewal reminders can flag credits still short and CE fees still unpaid before your deadline. CompTIA still decides what it accepts, and you submit in your CompTIA account as usual.

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Frequently asked questions

Certification rules change. Always confirm current requirements with the certifying body. MyCertRenewal is not affiliated with CompTIA.