Notion Certifications Explained. How to Become a Notion Consultant in 2026

The path to becoming a certified Notion Service Specialist – formerly Notion Certified Consultant – has changed since September 2025. It’s much more straightforward now, but no longer free.

In this article, I’ll review the free badges and paid certifications Notion offers, and break down the requirements for becoming a Notion Sales or Consulting Partner.

Notion Solutions Partner types and requirements

There are two ways to partner with Notion – by becoming a Sales Partner, a Consulting Partner, or both.

How to become a Notion Sales Partner

Notion Sales Partners earn revenue from selling Notion licenses and managing customer billing. They’re dedicated to expanding the Notion customer base and retaining the current customers.

Key requirements to become a Sales Partner are:

• A proven track record building and scaling practices for other SaaS platforms.
• Committing to Incremental Annual Recurring Revenue (iARR) targets for selling Notion licenses.
• Having full-time employees dedicated to selling Notion.

Steps to become a Notion Consulting Partner

Notion Consulting Partners sell their services in building, scaling and integrating Notion solutions. Certified Consulting Partners are listed in Notion Partner Marketplace.

1. Get the three Notion badges: Essentials, Workflow, and Advanced (free of charge).
2. Apply to become a Consulting Partner and get approved.
3. Pass the Notion Admin exam ($100).
4. Pass the Notion Service Specialist exam ($150).
5. Submit your profile to Notion Marketplace.

We’ll take a look at those steps in detail below.

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Notion Solutions Partner tiers

Both Notion Sales and Consulting Partner types have 4 tiers – Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.

The higher up the tiers you are, the more benefits you get for revenue sharing and getting leads – but the requirements for revenue volume and the number of certified Notion team members also increase.

What it means for freelancers is that you could theoretically enter the Notion Marketplace if you provide services solo, but no matter how efficient you are you won’t move up to the Silver tier unless you team up with at least one more person.

Submitting your Notion Partner application

Application is submitted from the Services tab on your Notion profile. There’s a single form for both Sales and Consulting Partners.

In your Notion Partner application, you’ll need to submit the details like:

• Your company size and annual revenue.
• What kind of services you offer, and links to examples of previous service engagements.
• How many customers you have, and typical customer company size.
• Which regions you support (AMER, APAC, EMEA).

Once your application is approved, you’ll need to pass two paid certification exams to become a Notion Service Specialist.

You’ll also need to sign the Notion Partner Program Agreement, and I recommend reading it thoroughly.

Why was my Notion Partner application rejected?

To summarize the reasons for declining applications that Notion cites (and to put them more bluntly), your application was likely rejected because:

• The previous work examples that you linked aren’t convincing.
• Services you offer aren’t well-defined.
• You don’t give an impression of a company that has enough experience or bandwidth to deliver solutions at the level Notion requires.
• There are already too many applications for a certain region, industry or track (sales or services).

The solution would usually be to work with more clients, take on more complex projects, let your service company mature, and try again.

Related: Best practices of workflow setup in PM tools.

Free Notion badges vs. paid certifications

There are three levels of evaluating your Notion knowledge and expertise. All badges and certifications are valid for two years, then you’ll need to re-certify to maintain your status.

1. Notion Core badges (free)

Badges that you could obtain for free after going through the optional study materials and passing a quiz:

• Notion Essentials. The basics of using Notion.
• Notion Workflow. Settings, process management.
• Notion Advanced. Automation, database management, using AI.

Passing score is 75%. Notion Core badges are issued by Skilljar.

2. Notion Admin Certification ($100)

This is what the Notion Advanced exam used to be like. There are 50 questions putting you in the shoes of an admin managing a larger company using Notion. You’re presented with various scenario-based challenges related to permission management, webhook and integration setup, user management, and more.

While this certification is open for everyone, if your ultimate goal is to become a Notion Consulting Partner, wait till your Partner application is confirmed to purchase the exam.

Passing score is 80%. Notion Certified Admin badge is issued by Credly.

If you fail the Notion Certification exam, you’re allowed 2 retakes within 90 days from purchase. If you fail those, you’ll need to wait 30 days before purchasing the exam again.

Notion Admin Certification exam is proctored via Talview. Before you launch the exam, make sure to check the Talview test readiness guide to ensure your system setup and environment are in line with their requirements.

How to get ready for Notion Certified Admin exam

Notion Certified Admin path has over 5 hours of study materials that become available when you purchase the exam. You could also piece this information together if you study the expansive Notion documentation.

AI could help in exam preparation – for one, you could generate quizzes and practice questions by feeding NotebookLLM Notion documentation and your notes.

Related: Using Generative AI in project management – practical tips.

3. Notion Service Specialist Certification ($150)

This path is available to individuals whose Notion Solutions Partner application was confirmed. Once you pass the exam, you earn a title of Notion Service Specialist (formerly Notion Certified Consultant).

According to a review of an exam taker, the course – and the subsequent exam – delves into topics related to consulting, project management and client engagements. It’s focused on larger companies with sizable budgets.

Are Notion certification exams hard?

For the free badges – Notion Essentials, Workflow and Advanced – the tests are simple. There are only 20 single-choice questions in each quiz. If you have some experience with the topics, the answer is often obvious without looking at the question itself, just from reading the options.

Paid Notion certification exams aren’t hard per se; questions come from the study materials in the courses that are available along with the exams. But they do require you to learn the materials thoroughly.

Offering your services on Notion Marketplace

After passing the required certifications, you officially become a Consulting Partner. You could submit your profile to the Marketplace and add team members. Here are the instructions and more details on how the Marketplace engagements work.

Marketplace deals go towards your Service revenue totals and allow you to qualify for higher Partner tiers. You could also add projects sourced outside the Marketplace (your clients must confirm them).

Discontinued Notion Credly badges

Notion Essentials, Settings & Sharing and Advanced badges issued by Credly didn’t have an expiration date. They’re still visible on Notion Credly page for legacy reasons, but they can no longer be earned.

There isn’t much point in reminiscing about how things used to be, but my multiple attempts to pass the previous version of the Notion Advanced exam still haunt me.

Notion Advanced exam used to have over 50 questions, a number of which were multiple-select with no indication of how many correct options there are. And if you fail to achieve the required 70% score, you could try again, for free… in three weeks.

Maybe it was the same for the other two levels, but I passed those tests on the first try. Notion Advanced, however, required some grind, even though the exam was open-book – some topics weren’t directly addressed in the documentation. Here’s the screenshot from the attempt where I finally got the coveted 70%.

Notion Certification exams Q&A

Will I earn more if I get certified as a Notion Consulting Partner?

If you get the certifications and land on Notion Marketplace, it will likely bring the leads that you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, so you’ll get more projects coming your way and thus earn more. Though there’s no guarantee in which time frame it’ll happen, if you get even a couple of projects over the two years the certifications are valid, you’ll profit from going through with them.

Outside the marketplace, having certifications validates your commitment and expertise, so clients are more likely to trust your expertise and agree to the fees you charge.

How much does it cost to become a Notion Certified Consultant?

You’ll need to pay the $100 Notion Admin Certification fee and the $150 Notion Service Certification fee. Certifications need to be renewed every 2 years.

Having a Notion paid plan is no longer an entry-level requirement for Notion Consultants – in fact, if your application is accepted, you may get a free Notion sandbox (Demo) account.

Are Notion certifications worth it?

Are you determined to become a Solutions Partner and get onto Notion Marketplace, or do you just want to have a Notion-related certification to enhance your professional profile? To an outsider who isn’t aware of Notion certificate hierarchy, a free Advanced badge would likely look just as valid as the paid Admin certification.

But if nothing else, getting certified is worth it for the skills improvement and insights you get while getting ready for the tests. Admin certification is more of a challenge, of course, so it’s more lucrative from that perspective.

If you’re interested in other workflow certifications, here’s a comparison of certification tracks in project management tools.