Kavita Sharma, PMP, PgMP · checked against the PMI CCR Handbook, April 2026 · last reviewed September 2026

Which PDU bundle should I buy?

Buy a 60-PDU bundle only if you have earned nothing this cycle. If your Giving Back is already at its cap of 25, you need 35 Education PDUs, not 60. If your total is fine but one Talent Triangle area is empty, you need 24. All three packs below are registered with PMI, arrive with a claim code, and cover the 8 PDUs in each area that Giving Back can never fill.

Show me the three packs

What is in the 60 PDU bundle?

Three self-paced courses that together supply 63 PDUs, so you clear the 60 and carry a little spare. Each one is registered with PMI under its own claim code, and each is claimed separately in CCRS. You have one year of access on lms.kavitasharma.net, which is long enough to take them at the pace the hours actually need.

24 PDUs

The Happy AI Leader

Carries the Talent Triangle minimums on its own, 8 in every area, so the part of the requirement you cannot earn at work is settled before you start anything else.

34 PDUs

Smart Manager – Be more Productive

The largest single course in the line and spread evenly across all three areas, so it does most of the lifting without leaving a thin spot anywhere.

5 PDUs

From Project Delivery to Programme Thinking

Weighted to Business Acumen, the area most people are shortest in, and the one a delivery role rarely builds on its own.

How is this different from a cheaper PDU bundle?

PDU bundles look interchangeable on a price page and are not. The thing that separates them is not the number of hours or the sticker. It is whether PMI already holds a record of the activity you are claiming.

What you are buying Is the activity registered with PMI? How you report it in CCRS What you hold if you are audited
A pack from a PMI-registered provider Yes. Every course carries its own claim code. Paste the code. The title, the provider and the Talent Triangle split fill themselves in. Your certificate of completion, against PMI’s own record of the course.
A self-report bundle No provider record sits behind the claim. You type the provider, the title, the description and the dates, and you choose the area yourself. Whatever notes you kept.
Free PDUs you find yourself Mixed. PMI’s own content and chapter events are recorded. A podcast, a blog or a book is not. Recorded ones appear or claim by code. Everything else is typed in, activity by activity. Notes and dates for every single entry.

PMI selects a percentage of certification holders for audit and asks for supporting material. Keep documentation for at least 18 months after the cycle ends, whichever route you take.

The question to ask a seller is not what it costs. It is whether they can give you a claim code. A provider who can name the code has a registration behind it. A provider who tells you to type the course name in yourself is selling you the hours, not the record, and you are the one who has to defend it later.

Can I just earn all 60 PDUs for free?

Yes, and it is worth saying so plainly. PMI puts no price condition on a PDU. Chapter events, webinars, podcasts, reading, mentoring, volunteering and your own work as a practitioner all count, and plenty of people renew without spending anything. What free changes is not whether you can renew. It is how much of the work lands on you.

Free cannot reach the last 24

Giving Back stops at 25 PDUs, and the 8 in each Talent Triangle area sit inside the Education requirement. Volunteering and working in the role cannot touch them, so at least 35 of your 60 have to be taught, free or paid.

Free does not save you the hours

One PDU is one hour whoever provides it. Sixty free PDUs is sixty hours of webinars and reading you have to find, sit through and remember to log, usually in pieces of one and two.

Free makes you the record

Most free learning is self-reported: you enter the provider, the title, the dates and the area, and you keep your own notes for 18 months past the cycle end. Thirty or forty separate entries is thirty or forty things to get right.

The honest middle route

Mixing is allowed and it is what most people do well. Take the free PDUs that come to you anyway, chapter sessions, a webinar you wanted to watch, the reading you were going to do, and buy the block that covers the 8-8-8 so the part with a hard minimum is settled. If you want to see how a claim code behaves in CCRS before you spend anything, the 1-PDU course on how CCR works is free and carries a real code.

Try the free 1-PDU course · Every way to earn a PDU

Which of the three packs fits me?

PMP, PgMP, PfMP and PMI-PBA all need 60 PDUs, of which at least 35 must be Education, with a minimum of 8 in each of Ways of Working, Power Skills and Business Acumen. Here is what each pack supplies against that, so you can check the arithmetic rather than take my word for it.

Pack Education PDUs Ways of Working Power Skills Business Acumen Buy it when
What PMI asks for 35 minimum 8 minimum 8 minimum 8 minimum —
24 PDU pack 24 8 8 8 Your total is nearly there but an area is empty
35 PDU pack 35 12.5 11 11.5 Your Giving Back is already at the 25 cap
60 PDU bundle 63 20.5 20 22.5 You have earned little or nothing this cycle

Figures are the Talent Triangle splits PMI holds against each registered course. PMI-ACP, PMI-RMP and CAPM renew on smaller totals and have their own packs.

Why the middle pack is 35 and not some other number

Because 35 is the smallest amount of Education anyone renewing a 60-PDU certification can get away with. Giving Back stops at 25, and 60 minus 25 is 35. Someone who has volunteered, mentored and logged their practitioner time to the cap still owes exactly 35 taught PDUs, so a pack of 34 leaves them one short of the total and one short of the Education floor at the same time. The 35 clears both, exactly.

What should I buy in my situation?

Four situations that cover most people. Open CCRS first and read the three area totals off your dashboard, because the right answer changes completely depending on what is already there.

Nothing logged yet

The cycle is running and CCRS is empty. Take the 60 PDU bundle: it is the only one that closes the whole requirement in a single purchase, and the per-PDU cost is the lowest on the ladder.

Pick the pack for my credential

Years of volunteering and mentoring

You have given plenty back and PMI has capped it at 25. The 35 PDU pack is built for exactly this: it supplies the taught 35 you still owe and clears every area minimum with it.

Check my Giving Back cap

Total is fine, one area is blank

Fifty-odd PDUs logged and Business Acumen still at zero. The 24 PDU pack puts 8 into each area at once, which is the part no amount of extra Ways of Working will fix.

Why an area can block a renewal

A handful short

Three or four PDUs from done. Do not buy a pack. Take the free 1-PDU course, claim a webinar you attended, and log the reading you have already done this year.

Free ways to close a small gap

What if I fall between the packs?

Some people do. If you hold 10 Giving Back PDUs and nothing else, you owe 50 Education, which is more than the 35 pack carries and less than the 60 bundle. There is no pack in between, and inventing one would not help you: take the 60 bundle, because it is the only thing that finishes the job, and the spare PDUs earned in your final year can carry into the next cycle.

Work out my exact gap first

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Questions people ask before they pick a pack

Because the three courses that cover every area cleanly add up to 63. You need 60, so three are spare. PDUs earned in the final 12 months of your cycle, above the requirement, can be carried into the next cycle, up to 20 for a PMP.

Not always, and price is the wrong first question. Ask whether each course comes with a PMI claim code, and what the bundle supplies in each Talent Triangle area. A cheap pack that carries both is fine. A cheap pack that is silent on either is asking you to do the reporting and carry the risk.

Yes, and it is often the sensible route. Use free learning for the flexible part of the requirement and a registered pack for the 8 in each area, which is where a missing PDU actually blocks a renewal.

Because 35 is the Education minimum for a 60-PDU certification, and Giving Back caps at 25. Anyone who has maxed their Giving Back owes exactly 35 taught PDUs, so 34 would leave them one short of both the total and the Education floor.

Partly. Power Skills and Business Acumen Education PDUs count towards every PMI certification you hold, and all Ways of Working PDUs count towards the PMP. Each certification still has its own cycle dates and its own renewal fee.

One year of access on lms.kavitasharma.net. The learning is self-paced, so if work or family interrupts you the material is still there when you restart.

Each course has its own claim code, sent in your welcome email. Enter it in CCRS and the course title, the provider and the Talent Triangle split are filled in for you. Most people enter each code themselves in about a minute. If you would like a hand, on a call or with the CCRS update done for you, just ask on WhatsApp.

No. Those certifications renew on 30 or 15 PDUs with lower area minimums, and each has its own pack sized to it. Buying a 60-PDU bundle for a 30-PDU renewal is paying for PDUs you cannot use.

Who is comparing these?

Kavita Sharma. Sixteen years as a practitioner, including Microsoft, and the last ten years and more as a programme and project management coach. She holds the PMP and the PgMP and has renewed both through several cycles, so the packs on this page are built to the requirement she works to herself. Her courses are registered with PMI, which is why each one carries a claim code.

  • Significant Contributor to the PMBOK® Guide, Sixth Edition
  • Contributor to the PMBOK® Guide, Eighth Edition
  • Author of Pass PMP in 21 Days – Study Guide and Pass PgMP in 21 Days
  • Coaching PMP, PgMP, PMI-ACP and CAPM candidates since 2014

Requirement figures from the PMI Continuing Certification Requirements Handbook, April 2026 edition. Talent Triangle splits are those registered with PMI against each course. Last checked September 2026.

The rules, in detail

What are PDUs, and how many do I need?

How many PDUs do I need for my PMI certification?

How many PDUs do I need in each Talent Triangle area?

How do I earn PDUs?

What happens if I miss my PDU deadline?

Do unused PDUs carry over to my next cycle?

What Has PMI Changed in CCR Requirements?

What is PMI’s CCR programme?

The PDU Knowledge Base

Claiming and reporting

How do I report PDUs in CCRS?

Why Was My PDU Claim Rejected? How to Fix It

How Long Does It Actually Take to Claim 60 PDUs?

What PMI Asks for in a CCR Audit, and What to Keep

How many PDUs do I still need?

PMP Renewal PDU Tracker – Free Excel Tool to Log Your 60 PDUs

Buy the size you need, not the size that is advertised.

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