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Free online courses and certificates from official providers

Updated

This guide lists official providers of online courses. Many have free options. It groups them by type and says clearly what costs money.

Check each official page for current prices and rules.

University courses

MIT OpenCourseWare

MIT OpenCourseWare offers free lecture notes, exams and videos from MIT. You do not need to register. The site has materials curated for offline learning on mobile devices.

CS50 (Harvard University)

Anyone can take CS50 for free through OpenCourseWare, even if you are not a Harvard student. You work through eleven weeks of material and then submit a final project.

You do not need programming experience. Two thirds of CS50 students have never taken computer science.

A verified certificate from edX is not part of the free route. To get one, enroll at cs50.edx.org instead.

Open Yale Courses

Open Yale Courses gives free, open access to introductory Yale courses. You do not need to register.

The website gives no course credit, degree or certificate. Courses for Yale College credit are offered separately through Yale Summer Online.

edX

You can audit edX courses at no cost. Auditors have temporary access to the course materials.

Paid options cost more:

  • Professional certificates are course series that take 2 to 10 months. They start at around $500.
  • Cohort-based executive education programs start at around $2,500. They take 6 to 20 weeks or more.

Verified certificates do not expire. Open the official page to see if aid is offered for your course.

Government platforms

SWAYAM

SWAYAM offers free courses from universities. You learn at your own pace, anytime and anywhere. You can earn certifications. You can also earn university credits that can be transferred to your degree.

Check the course page before you enroll.

NPTEL (IITs and IISc)

NPTEL courses from the IITs and IISc are open to anyone. Learning the course content is free.

A certificate is optional. To get one, you must take a proctored exam. Check the official page for the exam fee.

Tech skills

Microsoft Learn

Microsoft Learn offers self-paced learning on your own schedule. You can use interactive modules and learning paths, even with only 15 minutes. You can also register to learn from an instructor. The site offers training and credentials linked to career goals.

Check before you register.

Google Skills

The GEAR program on Google Skills gives you 35 monthly credits for hands-on learning at no cost.

You earn a shareable digital credential when you complete a certificate learning path. Certificates have no prerequisites. You can also earn skill badges by completing a series of skill badge courses.

A Google Cloud certification is different. It involves passing a proctored exam. The page suggests you build skills first with skill badges and certificates. Check the official page for the exam fee.

IBM SkillsBuild

IBM SkillsBuild offers learning that is 100% free and online. Topics include AI, cybersecurity and data. Some courses, such as AI Literacy, give you a digital credential. The site says its credentials are industry-recognized.

The Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation free collection has courses, microcourses, reports, videos and webinars. The page says all of them are free.

fast.ai

The Practical Deep Learning course at fast.ai is free. The book it is based on is free to read online. Every chapter is available as an interactive Jupyter Notebook.

You need about a year of coding experience, preferably in Python, and high school math. You do not need special hardware or software. The course uses Kaggle Notebooks and Paperspace Gradient, which both have good free options. All videos have captions you can turn on and off.

Health and climate

UN CC:Learn

UN CC:Learn lists courses. Some courses charge a certificate fee of USD 20. Some courses list a certificate with no price shown on the page. Some courses are moderated rather than self-paced.

What costs money

  • edX professional certificates: from around $500.
  • edX executive education programs: from around $2,500.
  • UN CC:Learn certificate on some courses: USD 20.
  • NPTEL certificate: you must take a proctored exam. Check the official page for the fee.
  • Google Cloud certification: you must pass a proctored exam. Check the official page for the fee.
  • Open Yale Courses: no certificate is available through the website.

Learning is free on MIT OpenCourseWare, CS50 through OpenCourseWare, Open Yale Courses, IBM SkillsBuild, the Linux Foundation free collection and fast.ai.

Before you plan

  • Open the official page of each course and read the current fee and certificate rules.
  • Decide if you need a certificate. If you do not, the free route is often enough.
  • If a certificate needs a proctored exam, check the exam date, fee and ID rules first.
  • Check the prerequisites. fast.ai needs coding experience. CS50 does not.
  • For financial aid, look for it on the course page before you pay.
  • Save the course page link and your enrollment confirmation.

Checked against official pages on 2026-11-13.

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