Microsoft · Retired July 31, 2026
AZ-204 has retired. The current exam is AI-200.
Microsoft retired Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure (AZ-204) on July 31, 2026. If you are starting now, you will sit AI-200 (Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate).
What AZ-204 was
AZ-204 was the exam for Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate. It covered Azure compute, storage, security, monitoring and connecting to Azure and third-party services from code.
What changed in AI-200
- Microsoft retired the Azure Developer Associate certification together with AZ-204 and points developers to AI-200 instead.
- AI-200 leads to a different certification, Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate.
- AI-200 is not a refresh of AZ-204. It focuses on AI workloads: vector search in Azure Cosmos DB and PostgreSQL, retrieval-augmented generation patterns, Azure Managed Redis and containerised AI solutions.
If you passed AZ-204
Microsoft has retired both the Azure Developer Associate certification and its renewal assessment, so a certification you hold can't be renewed when it expires. AI-200 is the current Azure developer associate exam.
Study for AI-200 instead
Study guides and question banks written for AZ-204 cover an outdated objective list. Check that anything you use says AI-200.
AZ-204: FAQs
Is AZ-204 still available?
No. Microsoft retired AZ-204 on July 31, 2026. The current exam is AI-200 (Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Cloud Developer Associate).
What replaced AZ-204?
AI-200. Microsoft retired the Azure Developer Associate certification together with AZ-204 and points developers to AI-200 instead.
I passed AZ-204. Is my certification still valid?
Microsoft has retired both the Azure Developer Associate certification and its renewal assessment, so a certification you hold can't be renewed when it expires. AI-200 is the current Azure developer associate exam.
Sources: Microsoft Learn: Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate (marked retired); Microsoft Q&A: AZ-204 retiring on July 31, 2026, AI-200 as its replacement. Not affiliated with Microsoft.