CCRN (Adult) Requirements 2026: Who Can Sit the Exam and What It Costs
Before you can book a seat you have to clear AACN’s eligibility gates. Here is exactly what they check, in the order they check it.
- 150Questions
- 3hTime limit
- $260Exam fee from
Table of Contents
What the CCRN (Adult) credential is
AACN CCRN - Critical-Care Registered Nurse (Adult) is awarded by AACN. It is not a course certificate you can buy your way into — AACN decides whether you are allowed to sit the exam at all, and that decision is made before you ever see a question. Candidates who treat the application as a formality are the ones who lose a testing window to a paperwork problem.
The eligibility gates, in order
AACN checks these in sequence, and failing any one of them stops the application. Work through them top to bottom before you pay a fee.
Gate 1
A current, unencumbered US RN or APRN licence
Gate 2
1,750 hours of direct care of acutely or critically ill adult patients in the previous two years, 875 of them in the most recent year
Gate 3
or 2,000 hours in the previous five years, 144 of them in the most recent year
Revised CCRN exams launched on 12 November 2025, so material written before that date can describe the wrong blueprint.
What it costs
The published fee is $260 for AACN members, $375 for non-members. Budget past that number: most candidates also pay for a review course or a question bank, and a retake is charged separately in almost every programme. The cheapest way to sit this exam once is to over-prepare for the first attempt.
What the exam itself looks like
| Questions | 150 total — 125 scored, 25 unscored pretest items |
| Time limit | 180 minutes |
| Fee | $260 for AACN members, $375 for non-members |
The blueprint splits like this, which is also the ratio your study hours should follow:
| Clinical Judgment | 80% |
| Professional Caring and Ethical Practice | 20% |
How long the process takes
Three clocks run at once and candidates usually notice only two. The first is the experience clock: the hours or years in the gates above have to be accrued, and in most programmes accrued recently, so time spent in the wrong role does not count no matter how long you spent there. The second is the approval clock: transcripts, licence verification and reference checks are done by people rather than scripts, and they run in weeks rather than days. The third is the eligibility window: once approved you have a fixed period to sit the exam, and letting it lapse means reapplying and paying again.
Plan backwards from the date you want the credential in hand, not forwards from the day you decide to start. The paperwork is the part that is outside your control, so it should go first.
Why applications get sent back
The failure modes are boring and they repeat. Hours logged in a role that does not match the definition in the handbook. A transcript sent by the candidate instead of by the school. A licence that is current but carries a restriction. Experience that is genuine but falls outside the lookback window. None of these are judgement calls you can argue your way past — they are checkboxes. Read the eligibility page as though it were a contract, because for the purposes of your application it is one.
Once you are approved, the work is question volume. Practise CCRN (Adult) questions free and find out where you actually stand before you book a date.
FAQ
Who is eligible to sit the CCRN (Adult) exam?
A current, unencumbered US RN or APRN licence 1,750 hours of direct care of acutely or critically ill adult patients in the previous two years, 875 of them in the most recent year or 2,000 hours in the previous five years, 144 of them in the most recent year
How much does the CCRN (Adult) exam cost?
$260 for AACN members, $375 for non-members
How many questions are on the CCRN (Adult) exam?
150 questions, of which 125 are scored and 25 are unscored pretest items.
How long does CCRN (Adult) approval take?
Verification is manual, so allow weeks rather than days between submitting an application and being cleared to schedule. Once you are approved a fixed eligibility window starts running, and letting it expire means paying to apply again.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from the certifying body, not from a third-party summary:
- https://www.aacn.org/certification/get-certified/ccrn-adult
- https://www.aacn.org/newsroom/revised-ccrn-exams-launch-nov-12-2025
Checked September 2, 2026. Fees and eligibility rules change; confirm against AACN before you pay anything.