Project+ training guide

What counts from your service

CompTIA asks for nothing. There's no application, no form, no approval step and nowhere to claim an NCOER, a JST or a DD-214. Every "does my military experience count" question that hangs over the PMP and the CAPM is moot here. What your service record does instead is cut your study time and, more usefully, get somebody else to pay the $399.

Any bounded effort you ran, whatever it was called

CompTIA recommends the equivalent of 6 to 12 months of hands-on experience managing projects in a tech environment, and DoD COOL says in the same breath that there's nothing to meet before the exam. Nobody checks either one. They tell you how much background the questions assume, which for most NCOs is background they have.

A unit move, a squadron PCS or a base closure

Start date, end date, a budget, contractors and property accountability. If you ran one, the life cycle vocabulary in Domain 2, project life cycle phases, describes something you've already done, and the studying gets much faster once you spot that.

A phase inspection or a depot maintenance cycle

Scoped work, a return-to-service date, parts on order and a team you scheduled. Domain 3 is tools and documentation, which is the paperwork side of exactly that, and it's 19% of the exam.

An exercise: Red Flag, RIMPAC, a CPX or an FTX

A planning cell, phased execution, external units to coordinate and a date nobody was going to move. Exercise planning maps onto the exam's language closely enough that much of the studying is renaming what you already do.

A comms package, a system fielding or a network cutover

Domain 4 is the basics of IT and governance, it's 18% of the exam, and it didn't exist in the previous version. Anyone out of a comms, cyber or IT billet starts that domain ahead of the field.

Your evaluations and award citations

Not for CompTIA, which asks for nothing. For the resume you write afterwards. The certification is the keyword an applicant tracking system screens on and your record is the evidence behind it. Project+ next to a line about running a 14-vehicle recovery across three forward sites reads as a project coordinator. On its own it reads as somebody who took a test.

• Your JST or CCAF transcript, as a route to the credential. No military course was found that awards Project+ or waives any part of it as of August 21, 2026, and with no prerequisite there's nothing to waive.
• Project+ as a DoD 8140 qualification. CompTIA has approval for 7 of its certifications across 30 work roles under DoDM 8140.03, and this isn't one of them.
• Passing a higher CompTIA certification, as an automatic renewal of this one. Project+ sits outside CompTIA's renewal cascade. It's a listed CEU activity toward the 30, but CompTIA's pre-approved table publishes no CEU value for Project+, so submit it and see rather than budgeting on it.

There's no audit here, because there's no application. CompTIA never sees your record, which makes this the one credential on this site where documentation is entirely about what comes after the exam. Pull your JST or CCAF transcript anyway. It's free from jst.doded.mil, and a college course taken on the back of it can be worth up to 30 CEUs toward the renewal you'll now need. Pull your NCOERs, OERs or fitreps before you lose access, because they carry the dates and outcomes you'll want as resume bullets.

Eligibility

No experience, no coursework, no application

There's no minimum to meet and nothing to document. No degree and no contact hours either, and nothing goes to CompTIA before the exam, so there's no eligibility period and no approval that could be refused. That absence is the structural difference between this credential and every other one on this site. CompTIA sells training without requiring you to buy it.

What CompTIA recommends, which isn't a requirement

The equivalent of 6 to 12 months of hands-on experience managing projects in a tech environment. DoD COOL states it more bluntly: there are no experience or education requirements to meet before the exam, and at least 12 months of cumulative experience or equivalent education is recommended. That's difficulty guidance, not a gate.

A voucher, valid 12 months and not extendable

It expires 12 months from purchase and CompTIA won't extend it under any circumstances. If a funding program buys it for you, the clock starts when they buy it rather than when you're ready to sit.

The route

1. Get it funded before you buy

   First for a reason. Army Credentialing Assistance pays before the exam and Navy COOL issues a prepaid voucher, and neither route reimburses a voucher you bought yourself. Buying on day one is the most expensive mistake available here.

2. Start from the published objectives

   CompTIA's free exam objectives document for PK0-005, the V5 exam launched November 8, 2022, is the authoritative content list. Four domains: project management concepts at 33%, life cycle phases at 30%, tools and documentation at 19%, and the basics of IT and governance at 18%.

3. Decide what training you actually need

   None is required. If you've run project-shaped work, CertMaster Study at $144 alongside the objectives is usually enough. If you've genuinely never coordinated anything, a taught course first is the better spend, and that argues for the CAPM rather than against Project+.

4. Buy the voucher

   $399 from CompTIA's store, or from whichever funding route is issuing it to you. It's valid 12 months from purchase and can't be extended, so don't buy it in January for an exam you'll sit next spring.

5. Schedule with Pearson VUE

   Either a physical test center or online proctored delivery through OnVUE. DoD COOL notes that Pearson has test centers on some military bases, worth checking before you drive anywhere.

6. Sit the exam

   Ninety minutes, a maximum of 90 questions, and a pass mark of 710. If you fail, there's no waiting period before a second attempt, though every attempt costs full price.

7. Then diary the expiration date

   Three years from your pass date, 30 CEUs and a $150 fee. Do it the day you pass, because the deadline is the part people miss and a lapse costs the full $399 again.

What it costs

The floor is $399 and everything above it is optional. Check that figure against CompTIA's own store rather than a comparison page, because almost every guide still quotes $369, which was CompTIA's 2025 price, and the retake bundle is $519 rather than the $737 that keeps circulating. Both, and CertMaster Study at $144, were read from CompTIA's live product data on August 21, 2026. No military or veteran discount appears anywhere on CompTIA's published list of ways to save, read the same day. It does publish a government discount tied to a government-linked account, and 35 to 55 percent off its store for actively registered US students of four-year institutions and some two-year ones, through SheerID. A veteran on the GI Bill at a four-year school qualifies. At a trade school or a bootcamp, check first. A co-host of this show owns a company that trains for the PMP and the CAPM.

Getting it paid for

• Still serving is the strongest position, and for Project+ it's often free. The credential sits on DoD COOL as record project434, with a GI Bill Eligible icon on every service's record. Get approval before you spend, because these programs pay the testing agency direct and won't reimburse a voucher you already bought.
• In the Army, Project+ carries the CA Eligible icon on Army COOL. Credentialing Assistance covers training, materials and the exam, at $2,000 a fiscal year for one credential and up to three in ten years, inside a combined $4,500 ceiling with Tuition Assistance. Apply in ArmyIgnitED 45 to 90 days ahead.
• Army CA has teeth on the way out rather than the way in. It pays before the course or exam begins, so out of pocket isn't reimbursed, and if it funded training you then didn't sit the exam for, the Army recoups the cost. You also have to finish 31 days before ETS or MRD.
• Army COOL also flags Project+ as approved for promotion points. That's a concrete in-service return that almost nothing written about this credential mentions.
• The Navy COOL record carries an icon reading that voluntary funding for the credential exam, re-certification or maintenance fee has been approved for payment. Navy pays by prepaid voucher and generally prohibits member reimbursement, so command and program office approval come first. Funding is discretionary and can run out mid-year.
• Marine Corps COOL lists Project+, and unlike the Army, Navy and Coast Guard records its page showed no funding icon as of August 21, 2026. Whether that means not funded, or funded subject to MOS alignment, wasn't resolved, so ask your education office rather than assuming either way.
• The Coast Guard record carries the CG COOL funding icon, and current policy is that credentials listed there may be reimbursed where the member is eligible. Up to $4,500 a fiscal year, separate from Coast Guard TA. It's reimbursement rather than a voucher, so get approval in MyCG Ed first, then claim with an OF-1164.
• For the Air Force, Project+ is listed, read in a browser on August 21, 2026. Air Force funding runs through the Air Force Virtual Education Center rather than the DoD portal, so check AFVEC for the answer. Space Force isn't a separate service on COOL, and Air Force COOL covers both. The cap is verified, and most guides get it wrong. AF COOL is $4,500 lifetime, not per year.
• The GI Bill covers it, and the reason people believe otherwise is a spelling. VA holds one certification record for it and spells it "CompTIA Project-Plus", with a hyphen where the plus sign belongs. So "CompTIA Project+" returns nothing and "Project Plus" returns prep courses. Checked August 22, 2026.
• VA reimburses the actual test cost up to $2,000 per test on Form 22-0803, but don't assume the whole $399 comes back. VA's own record for PK0-005 carries an approved fee of $272, read August 21, 2026, and its approved fees run behind CompTIA's list prices generally. You pay first, it draws down entitlement based on what VA paid back, and you don't have to pass.
• Onward to Opportunity lists CompTIA Project+ as a learning pathway and pays one exam fee, but only inside your final six months of service, or if you're an unemployed veteran, Guard or Reserve member or spouse. Employed veterans get the training and pay their own fee.
• SkillBridge pays no exam fee, only authorized time in your last 180 days with your pay continuing. SpouseWorks, formerly MyCAA, is up to $4,000 across all pay grades and pays testing organizations direct, though Project+ wasn't confirmed on its pages by name. VET TEC ended April 1, 2024, replaced by the VA High Technology Program, authorized January 2, 2025 through September 30, 2027, which funds approved programs rather than a standalone exam.

Questions people actually ask

Keeping it

One CEU per hour of training, with at least half the content relating to the exam objectives. A training course, a college course or an ACE course each carry up to 30 CEUs, a live webinar 6, work experience 3 a year. CEUs don't carry forward. Earning another certification is a listed CEU activity for Project+, but CompTIA's pre-approved table publishes no CEU value for it, so submit one and see rather than budgeting on it. CertMaster CE is blank in the Project+ column. The exam route is a different case. CompTIA does list Project+ for it, and it renews you only on a release newer than the one you passed. PK0-005 has been the only release since November 2022, so there's nothing newer to sit. Plan on CEUs and re-check if a V6 lands before your deadline. Read August 22, 2026. None of this applies to certificates earned before October 1, 2025.