SecProve
› Certifications · compare

Compare certifications

Pick up to 3 certifications and compare them side-by-side on cost, exam format, recertification, salary signal, quality, and domain coverage.

GIAC / SANS · professional
GCSA
GIAC Cloud Security Automation

Security-as-code: IaC hardening, CI/CD guardrails, automated cloud response.

Official page

› Cost

Exam fee
GCSA$979
Annual maintenance fee
GCSA—
3-year cost of ownership
GCSA$979

› Exam mechanics

Pass mark
GCSA70% (scaled per attempt)
Retake policy
GCSA$999 fee · 30d wait
Study time
GCSA100–180 hrs
Validity
GCSA4 yrs
CPE / yr
GCSA9 CPEs
Delivery
GCSAonline proctored

› Salary signal (US base)

Range
GCSA$130K – $195K
Median
GCSA$155,000
Premium %
GCSA—
Role context
GCSACloud DevSecOps engineer, US, 4-6 years.

› Quality (4-axis rubric · 0–10)

Schema quality
GCSA8.0
Practice evidence
GCSA6.5
Maintenance
GCSA8.5
Market recognition
GCSA5.5
Average
GCSA7.1

› Recognition & lifecycle

Recognition
GCSAGlobal · US · EU · UK
ISO 17024 accredited
GCSA✓
DoD 8140 baseline
GCSA—
Holders worldwide
GCSA—
Current version
GCSA2024 SEC540 refresh (2024-04)

› Domain coverage

A11Detection Engineering & Threat Hunting
GCSA○ touched
A13Supply Chain Security
GCSA● core
A4Application Security
GCSA● core
A5Cloud Security
GCSA● core
C6AI Infrastructure Security
GCSA○ touched

Browse the full catalog or open any one of these on its detail page for full study materials, peer comparisons, and lifecycle notes.

All certificationsGCSA detail