For the past few months, PMI’s answer to “when exactly?” was a quarter, not a date. Its notice on PMP training hours said the live-training rule would change “starting in late Q4 2026” and promised the date would follow. The date is now on the page: 1 December 2026.
That is the whole news. Everything else about the rule is unchanged since August. But if you are planning a live PMP prep course, a quarter and a date are very different things to plan against.
What changes on 1 December 2026
To apply for the PMP you need 35 hours of project management training. From 1 December 2026, hours from a live course count only if the provider is one of the following:
- a PMI Authorized Training Partner (ATP),
- a China Registered Education Provider (REP), or
- an eligible accredited academic programme, including programmes accredited by the PMI Global Accreditation Center (GAC).
“Live” covers both classroom courses and instructor-led virtual ones. PMI’s stated reason is consistency of preparation across markets.
What does not change
Three things stay as they are, and all three are routinely reported wrongly:
- Self-paced courses. On-demand training still counts from any provider. The new restriction applies to live delivery only.
- Hours you already have. Training completed before 1 December 2026 remains eligible under the current rules. Nobody has to sit through 35 hours again.
- The 35-hour requirement itself. The number does not move, and an active CAPM certification still substitutes for it.
What to do with the date
If you are booking a live course, there are now two clean options. Either finish it before 1 December 2026 under the current rules, or check that the provider is an ATP, a China REP or an accredited academic programme. PMI maintains searchable lists for both partner types, linked from the notice.
The practical risk is a course that starts in November and ends in December. PMI’s wording ties eligibility to training that is completed before the cut-off, so a course straddling the date is the one case worth clarifying with the provider before you pay.
There is a second reason to look at your timeline now. The exam itself changed in July 2026, with the Business Environment domain rising from 8 % to 26 % and AI, sustainability and stakeholder engagement appearing in the scenarios. We covered that in The New PMP Exam Is Live: What Changed on 9 July 2026. If your prep material predates July, the training-hours question is not the only thing worth checking.
Why this one is easy to get wrong
This change has been circulating in secondary write-ups since August, usually as “PMI is restricting training providers” without the qualifier that it applies to live courses only. Our own earlier round-up, Project Management Certifications in 2026: What Actually Changed, quoted PMI’s “late Q4 2026” wording precisely because no date existed at the time. It does now, and 1 December 2026 is the figure to plan against.
It is also worth noting where the date surfaced. PMI states it on the exam update page for candidates and, in the same wording, on the page aimed at training providers. Two PMI pages, one date, no ambiguity left.
Sources
- PMI: What’s new in the updated PMP exam, section “Upcoming Changes to PMP Training Requirements”
- PMI: How to Become an Authorized Training Partner
By Tom, PMP-certified since 2004. Last updated: September 2026