Best Google Certification Courses in 2024 (Free & Paid) (2024)

Google offers several free and paid certification courses through its own learning platforms and third-party providers. Their goal is to help people build job-ready skills to start a career in the tech industry.

In this post, you’ll learn the best Google certifications worth pursuing. We’ve examined all Google certifications and will help you decide which ones can open up new career opportunities.

Things to Know About Google Certifications

They are 100% online certificates, meaning you can complete the courses online without attending a classroom in person.

Google courses are designed and built by experts working at Google. Some certifications are delivered by Google online training platforms (Google Skillshop, Google Digital Garage, Grow with Google), and others by external e-learning providers.

Google offers both free and paid certifications (see Google Certifications List).

Google certifications are grouped into three main categories.

1. Google Career Certifications – These are professional certifications related to IT support, Data Analytics, Project Management, UX Design, and Android Development. Google career certifications are paid for and delivered by Coursera.

2. Google Digital Marketing Certifications – These are free and paid certifications delivered by Google Skillshop and Coursera. These courses cover various topics, including online marketing, social media marketing, cloud training, SEO, email marketing, machine learning courses, and more.

3. Google Product Certifications – These are free training courses (with certifications) related to Google products. The most popular are Google Ads certifications and Google Analytics. Courses and certifications are delivered by Google Skillshop.

Best Google Free Certification Courses

The free Google certification courses cover topics related to Digital Marketing, Google Ads, Google Analytics, Machine Learning, Coding, and Generative AI.

1. Fundamentals of Digital Marketing Certification (Free)
2. Google Ads Search Certification (Free)
3. AI-Powered Shopping Ads Certification (Free)
4. Google Analytics Certification (Free)
5. Google Ads Display Certification (Free)
6. Introduction to Generative AI (Free)
7. Machine Learning Crash Course (Free)
8. Intro to TensorFlow For Deep Learning (Free)
9. AI-Powered Performance Ads Certification (Free)

1. Fundamentals of Digital Marketing Certification (Free)

One of the most popular Google courses is the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing.

This is considered by many experts as one of the best digital marketing courses. It’s a free course that includes 26 modules created by Google trainers. Upon completion of the lessons, you can take an exam and earn a digital marketing certificate.

The certificate is accredited by the Open University and IABE Europe, and it’s a free digital marketing certification offered by Google Skillshop.

Why take this certification?

You should consider studying for this certification if you want to pursue a career in digital marketing.

By taking this course, you’ll build the necessary skills to work with various digital marketing channels, including:

• Content Marketing
• eCommerce Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Display Advertising
• Mobile Marketing
• Online Marketing Strategy

It’s a certification course aimed at beginners, and the total time investment is 40 hours. To get certified, you must complete all 26 modules and pass the Google Garage exam (40 questions, multiple-choice).

Jobs you can do with the Google digital marketing certification:

• Digital Marketing Specialist
• Digital Marketing Manager

The average salary for Digital marketing professionals in the US is between $52K – $100K per year (depending on experience and job position).

Read our Fundamentals of Digital Marketing Certificate Review to learn more about this certification course.
Enroll Now For Free

2. Google Ads Search Certification (Free)

Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords) is the most popular PPC platform and one of Google’s major income sources.

To educate marketers on taking advantage of all Google Ads features, they created several Google Ads certification courses delivered by Google Skillshop for free.

One of the Google Ads courses worth pursuing is the Google Ads Search Certification.

Why take this certification?

• Acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to run search ads campaigns on Google.
• It’s a requirement if you want to become an official Google Ads Partner.
• It’s one of the most recognized certifications in the marketing industry.

To become Google ads certified, you must pass a 50-question multiple-choice exam with an 80% and above score. Exams are taken via Google Skillshop, and they are free.

To prepare for the exams, you can use the study guide and resources provided by Skillshop or register for a third-party Google Ads course.

Jobs you can do with the Google Ads Search Certification:

• Google Ads Specialist
• PPC Specialist
• PPC Manager
• SEM Specialist

The average salary of a Google Ads specialist is $71k per year.

Read our Google Skillshop Review to learn more about the learning platform, courses, and exams.
Enroll Now For Free

3. AI-Powered Shopping Ads Certification (Free)

If you want to start a career in eCommerce or acquire the skills needed to promote your own products on Google, you should definitely consider the AI-Shopping Ads Certification.

Why take this certification?

The shopping ads certification will teach you how to design, set up, and optimize Google Shopping campaigns.

You’ll learn how to add your product catalog to the Google merchant center to get your products to appear in Google search and use them in different types of campaigns, including shopping and retargeting campaigns.

The course has been updated to include lessons on the new AI-powered Shopping campaigns (Performace Max).
Jobs you can do with the Google Shopping Ads Certification:

• PPC Specialist
• eCommerce Specialist
• PPC Expert

The average salary of an eCommerce specialist is $58K per year.

Read our guide on the best eCommerce Certification Courses for more learning options (Free and Paid).
Enroll Now For Free

4. Google Analytics Certification (Free)

One of the hands-on skills all digital marketing professionals should have is using Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is the most popular website analytics platform, and getting the official Google Analytics Certification shows your competency in using the tool.

Why take this certification?

By enrolling in this free Google certification, you’ll learn both basic and advanced Google Analytics 4 concepts. By the end of the course, you’ll be able to use different reports to analyze and interpret how users find and interact with a website.

The total time investment needed for this course is 4.6 hours. To get certified, you must pass the Google Analytics exams (70 multiple-choice questions) with an 80% or higher score.

Jobs you can do with the Google Analytics Certification:

• Google Analytics Professional
• Google Analytics Specialist
• Junior Data Analyst

Read our guide on the best Google Analytics Courses for more GA training options.
Enroll Now For Free

5. Google Ads Display Certification (Free)

Another Google certification worth considering is the Google Ads Display Certification. It’s a free certification offered by Google Skillshop.

Why take this certification?

Google display ads are great for brand awareness and retargeting, and this course will teach you how to maximize the ROI from your paid campaigns.

The total time investment is about 2.6 hours. To get certified, you must pass the Google Ads Display assessment with a score of 80% and above.

Jobs you can do with the Google Ads Display Certification:

• Google Ads Specialist
• Google Display Specialist
• PPC Manager
• SEM Specialist

Read our guide on the top Facebook Ads Courses for alternative training options to Google Display Ads.
Enroll Now For Free

6. Introduction to Generative AI (Free)

The Introduction to Generative AI course is offered by Google Cloud. It’s a free course that will teach you the basics of Generative AI.

Why take this certification?

By taking this short course (30 minutes), you’ll learn what Generative AI is and how it works. You’ll get a glimpse into Generative AI model types and how they can be used in real-life scenarios. You’ll also be introduced to tools to create your own Gen AI apps.

Upon completing the course and passing a quiz, you can get a certificate of completion.

Jobs you can do with the Google Generative AI Certification:

• Generative AI Junior Specialist

Read our guide on the best AI (Artificial Intelligence) Courses to learn more about AI training options and certifications.
Enroll Now For Free

7. Machine Learning Crash Course (Free)

The Machine Learning Crash Course with TensorFlow APIs is a free course offered by Learn With Google AI. The course includes 25 lessons, and the time investment is around 15 hours.

Why take this certification?

If you want to learn what machine learning is and how it differs from traditional programming, this course is excellent for you.

Throughout the course, you’ll be introduced to the various Machine Learning (ML) concepts and have to complete more than 30 exercises to practice with ML programming.

The course, although for beginners, does have some prerequisites. If you’re new to machine learning, you should first take the Introduction to Machine Learning course (20 minutes) and tutorials on NumPy and Pandas. You can read more here.
Jobs you can do with the Google Machine Learning Certification:

• Machine Learning Junior Specialist

If you want to explore more training options, read our guide on the top Machine Learning Courses and Certifications.
Enroll Now For Free

8. Intro to TensorFlow For Deep Learning (Free)

Intro to TensorFlow for Deep Learning is a free course Udacity offers in cooperation with Google. The course includes 11 lessons covering topics related to:

• Machine Learning
• Neural Networks
• Convolutional Neural Networks
• Forecasting using Deep Learning and TensorFlow
• Natural Language Processing with TensorFlow

Why take this certification?

TensorFlow is a free and open-source library created by Google and used for machine learning and artificial intelligence. This course will teach you how to build, train, and optimize your own networks using TensorFlow.

During the lessons, you’ll go through many hands-on exercises and build real-world applications.

The material is delivered by Google experts, and you’ll get a certificate of completion upon completing all the lessons and graded assignments.

Jobs you can do with the Google TensorFlow Course:

• Machine Learning Junior Specialist
• TensorFlow Junior Specialist

Enroll Now For Free

9. AI-Powered Performance Ads Certification (Free)

AI-Powered Performance Ads Certification is a new free Google certification that Google Skillshop offers. The program includes 18 lessons, which take an average of 4 hours to complete.

Why take this certification?

Performance Ads is a Google Ads campaign type that uses Google AI to optimize the campaigns. Instead of setting up different campaigns to reach users on the various Google channels (Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, Discovery, Display Network), you create a Performance Max campaign.

Through the Perf Max, you give Google some basic information about your campaign goals and upload your assets (ads, images, videos), and Google AI does the job of finding new prospects based on your budget.

To get Google certified, you must pass the graded assessment, which consists of 50 questions and have 75 minutes to complete.

Jobs you can do with the AI-Powered Performance Ads Certification:

• Google Ads Specialist
• PPC Specialist
• SEM Specialist
• PPC Expert

Enroll Now For Free

Best Google Paid Certification Courses

The paid Google certification courses include Cyber Security, Data Analytics, Digital Marketing, UX Design, IT Support, BI, and Cloud courses. All courses are free to access for 7 days, and upon completion, you get a professional certificate from Google.

10. Google IT Support Professional Certificate (Paid)
11. Google Data Analytics Certificate (Paid)
12. Google Project Management Certificate (Paid)
13. Google UX Design Certificate (Paid)
14. Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate (Paid)
15. Google Digital Marketing and eCommerce Certificate (Paid)
16. Google Advanced Data Analytics Certificate (Paid)
17. Google Business Intelligence Certificate (Paid)
18. Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate (Paid)
19. Google Cloud Engineer Professional Certification (Paid)

10. Google IT Support Professional Certificate (Paid)

If you want to get a job in the IT support industry, pursuing the Google IT Support Professional Certificate is your best bet.

According to Google, there are more than 340K job openings in the field of IT, and this online certificate will help you build the necessary skills to work as an IT support professional.

Why take this certification?

• The Google IT Support certificate is the most popular Google career certificate on Coursera.
• It opens up new career opportunities.
• It’s perfect for beginners with no prior experience in IT support.
• It’s one of the professions you can do from home.
• The need for IT support specialists is high in demand and constantly increasing.
• It’s the first step toward obtaining a more specialized certification and earning a higher salary.
• You can get college credits and exceptions from other courses.

The cost for getting this Google career certificate is $49 per month, and the estimated duration is 6 months (allocating 10 hours per week).

To get certified, you need to complete 5 courses:

• Technical Support Fundamentals
• The Bits and Bytes of Computer Networking
• Operating Systems and You: Becoming a Power User
• System Administration and IT Infrastructure Services
• IT Security: Defense against the digital dark arts

Jobs you can do with a Google IT support certificate:

Once you become Google IT support certified, you can apply for several jobs, including help desk technician, systems analyst, support specialist, database administrator, IT technician, and computer user specialist.

The average annual salary for entry-level IT support professionals is around $50K.

Read our Google IT Support Professional Certificate Review to learn more about this Google course.
Enroll Now For Free

11. Google Data Analytics Certificate (Paid)

Data analytics is one of the hottest topics in the marketing industry. With the growth of data coming from various resources, you need professionals to gather, interpret, and analyze the data to make informed business decisions.

The Google Data Analytics Professional career certificate from Google will help you build the necessary skills to get an entry-level marketing job as a Data Analyst.

Why take this certification?

• According to Google, there are more than 300K job openings in the US looking for data analysts
• Build job-ready skills
• Understand how to use data to solve problems
• It’s an online course (no need to attend a class in person)

To get certified, you need to complete 8 courses:

• Foundations: Data, Data, Everywhere
• Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decisions
• Prepare Data for Exploration
• Process Data from Dirty to Clean
• Analyze Data to Answer Questions
• Share Data Through the Art of Visualization
• Data Analysis with R Programming
• Google Data Analytics Capstone: Complete a Case Study

The cost for getting this Google career certificate is $49 per month, and the estimated duration is 6 months (allocating 10 hours per week).

Jobs you can do with a Google Data Analytics certificate:

• Data Analyst
• Junior Database Administrator
• Junior data scientist
• Finance Analyst
• Operations Analyst
• Business performance analyst
• Marketing analyst

The average annual salary for Data Analytics certified professionals is $68K.
Read our Google Data Analytics Certification Review to learn more about this Google certification.
Enroll Now For Free

12. Google Project Management Certificate (Paid)

Project management skills are required if you want to pursue a management position in a company, become a digital marketing consultant, or start your own business.

Any online task, whether a development project, executing an SEO campaign, running a digital marketing project, or a social media marketing strategy, is like a small project.

Knowing how to plan, organize, and monitor the project on time and within budget is critical to running profitable projects.

The Google Project Management Professional certificate will help you become a Google certified project manager.

Why take this certification?

• Become a certified Google Project Management and get one of the 475K available jobs.
• Learn how to run successful IT and digital marketing projects
• Learn how to use project management tools
• Get credits (100 hours) toward becoming a PMI-certified project management

To become certified, you need to complete 6 courses:

• Foundations of Project Management
• Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project
• Project Planning: Putting It All Together
• Project Execution: Running the Project
• Agile Project Management
• Applying Project Management in the Real World

The cost for getting this Google career certificate is $49 per month, and the estimated duration is 6 months (allocating 10 hours per week).

Jobs you can do with a Google Project Management certificate:

• Project manager
• Junior Project manager
• Project Coordinator
• Project Assistant
• Program Manager
• Scrum master
• Project Administrator
• Technical project manager

The average annual salary for entry-level project management professionals is $59K annually.

Read our Google Project Management Certificate Review to learn more about this Google certification.
Enroll Now For Free

13. Google UX Design Certificate (Paid)

User experience is a key factor for the success of any physical or digital product, including websites and mobile apps. The Google UX Design certificate will help you build the skills needed to design interfaces that offer a great experience to users.

To become a certified UX designer, you need to complete 7 courses.

• Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design
• Start the UX Design Process: Empathize, Define, and Ideate
• Build Wireframes and Low-Fidelity Prototypes
• Conduct UX Research and Test Early Concepts
• Create High-Fidelity Designs and Prototypes in Figma
• Responsive Web Design in Adobe XD
• Design a User Experience for Social Good & Prepare for Jobs

The cost for getting this Google career certificate is $49 per month, and the estimated duration is 6 months (allocating 10 hours per week).

Why take this certification?

No prior experience is needed to follow this course, but it’s not for everyone. If you feel you don’t have the creativity and vision to design web or mobile interfaces, you better choose a different career path.

This is an excellent course for people who like and have the talent to work with design tools and concepts.

Jobs you can do with a Google UX Design certificate:

• UX designer
• UI designer
• Web designer
• Product designer

The average annual salary for UX designers is $59K.

Read our Google UX Design Certificate Review to learn more about this Google certification.
Enroll Now For Free

14. Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate (Paid)

Python is the most in-demand programming language for the web. Python courses are popular on all online learning platforms, and the need for Python programmers is constantly increasing.

The Google IT Automation With Python career course teaches you how to use Python to create programs/scripts for automating common administrative tasks.

The cost of getting this Google career certificate is $49 per month, and the estimated duration is 4 months (allocating 10 hours per week).

Why take this certification?

This is a specialized professional certification, and although no prior coding experience is required, it’s for people who want to learn to program. If you find programming too confusing, choosing a different career path is better.

If, on the other hand, you want to start exploring the exciting world of computer programming and become a Python expert, this course is a great starting point.

There are more than 530K job postings related to Python (in the US alone), and you’ll have no difficulty finding a job.

Jobs you can do with a Google Python Professional certificate:

• Python programmer
• Web developer
• IT Support Specialist
• IT Automation specialist
• Junior System administrator

The average annual salary for good Python programmers is around $115K annually in the United States.

Read our Google IT Automation With Python Certificate Review to learn more about this Google certification.
Enroll Now For Free

15. Google Digital Marketing and eCommerce Certificate (Paid)

Besides the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing, Google has recently released a new professional certificate combining Digital Marketing and eCommerce together, the .

This certificate includes seven courses designed by Google Marketing experts and delivered via Coursera. Unlike the Fundamentals certificate, which is free, this is a paid certification. Registering for the course and getting certified is $49 per month, and the estimated duration is 6 months (the expected total cost is $234).

The lessons teach you how to use digital marketing to reach your target audience. The certificate covers concepts related to search engine optimization, social media marketing, email marketing, and display advertising.

Most of the courses (2/7) are allocated exclusively to eCommerce marketing. In particular, you’ll learn how to design an online store (using Shopify), add product information, and optimize it for online sales.

Why take this certification?

You should take this certification if you want to start a career as a digital marketing professional with a focus on eCommerce marketing. Compared to the Fundamentals Certification, which includes 40 hours of content, this certificate includes 152 hours of content, and the lessons are more comprehensive and practical.

In addition, as part of the practical assignments, you’ll get a chance to work with popular digital marketing tools like MailChimp, Canva, Shopify, and Hubspot.
Jobs you can do with a Google Digital Marketing & eCommerce Certificate:

• Digital Marketing Coordinator
• Marketing Specialist
• SEO Specialist
• Search Engine Analyst
• Freelance Digital Marketing
• E-commerce Associate
• Email Marketing Expert

The average salary of a junior e-commerce specialist in the US is around $51K per year.

Read our to learn more about this Google certification.
Enroll Now For Free

16. Google Advanced Data Analytics Certificate (Paid)

The Google Advanced Data Analytics Certificate is the next step for Google Data Analytics Certificate graduates. Unlike the Data Analytics certificate aimed at beginners, the Advanced certificate is for people with experience in the data analytics industry.

The certificate includes seven courses covering topics related to statistical analysis, regression models, and machine learning and takes an average of 6 months to complete.

Why take this certification?

You should take this certification if you want to pursue senior data analytics positions.

It’s not a certification for inexperienced professionals but builds on your data analytics skills and experience to take your career to the next level.

The certificate can be taken entirely online, and it’s self-faced, making learning more convenient for most professionals with a job.

Upon completion of the certificate, you’ll have a number of projects to enrich your portfolio and skills related to advanced data analytics concepts like:

• How to teach computer systems to discover patterns in data with machine learning.
• How to perform data analytic tasks in Python
• How to use popular data analytics tools like Tableau to visualize data.

Jobs you can do with a Google Advanced Data Analytics Certificate:

• Senior data analyst
• Junior data scientist
• Data science analyst
• Data scientist

The average annual salary for Senior Data Analytics certified professionals is $118K in the US.

Read our Google Advanced Data Analytics Certificate Review to learn more about this Google certification.
Enroll Now For Free

17. Google Business Intelligence Certificate (Paid)

The Google Business Intelligence Certificate is the first career certificate exclusively on Business Intelligence. It’s an advanced certificate for professionals already working in the industry.

The certification includes three courses and takes less than 2 months to complete. The courses cover topics related to data models and pipelines, interactive dashboards, and reporting.

Why take this certification?

You should take this certification if you’re already working in a related data analytics position and want to expand your skills with practical, hands-on projects featuring BigQuery, SQL, and Tableau.

Although Google recommends having a data analytics certificate before taking this certification, this is not a strict requirement. As long as you have working experience with data manipulation and tools, we can follow the lessons without problems.

As part of the end-of-course project of course 3, you’ll complete an interactive Business Intelligence dashboard, which is a great addition to your portfolio when applying for senior-level positions.

Jobs you can do with a Google Business Intelligence Certificate:

• Business Intelligence Analyst
• Business Intelligence Engineer
• Business Intelligence Developer

The average annual salary for BI-certified professionals is $96K in the US.

Read our Google Business Intelligence Certificate Review to learn more about this Google certification.
Enroll Now For Free

18. Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate (Paid)

The Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate is an entry-level certification for entering the Cybersecurity industry.

If you want to build skills in an in-demand industry and secure a job as a cybersecurity analyst, this is one of the best cybersecurity certifications you can pursue.

The certification includes eight courses and takes less than 5 months to complete. The courses cover topics related to data security, network security, cyber attacks, cybersecurity tools and processes, automating cybersecurity tasks with Python, and more.

Why take this certification?

You should take this certification if you want to learn how businesses can protect their data and other online assets from hackers.

The courses cover both the theory and practical aspects of data security. You’ll learn how to identify attacks, how to communicate this to stakeholders, and what you can do to protect and prevent cyber attacks from happening.

Like other Google certifications, during the course, you’ll have a chance to work on several projects that you can use as case studies for your portfolio.
There are also lessons on how to find entry-level jobs, create a resume, and best prepare for an interview.

Jobs you can do with a Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate:

• Cybersecurity Analyst
• Security Analyst
• Security Operations Center Analyst (SOC)
• Information Security Analyst
• IT Security Analyst
• Cyber Defense Analyst

The average annual salary for Cybersecurity certified professionals is $100K in the US.

Read our Google Cybersecurity Certificate Review to learn more about this Google certification.
Enroll Now For Free

19. Google Cloud Engineer Professional Certification (Paid)

The Google Cloud Engineer professional certification is a premium Google course preparing students for a career in cloud engineering. The certificate includes 5 courses, and it takes 1 month to complete.

Why take this certification?

This certification program will help you build the skills to deploy and monitor applications in a Google Cloud environment. You’ll learn how Google Cloud infrastructure works and how to use Google Cloud console to manage the environment.

This course is not for beginners. Before you start, you should have background knowledge in virtual machines, web services, and IP networking.

Jobs you can do with a Google Cloud Engineer certificate:

• Google Cloud Engineer
• Associate Cloud Engineer

Cloud Engineers make approximately $131,264 per year on average in the US.

For more Cloud training options, review our Google Cloud Certifications guide.
Enroll Now For Free

Google Certifications List

The table below lists the most popular Google certifications.

Are Google Certifications Worth It?

Google certifications are certainly worth it. All professional and career Google certifications are prepared by Google experts and are carefully designed to help students build job-ready skills.

The certifications are accredited by Universities, professional institutions, and employers, and they can help you secure a job in the IT or digital marketing industry.

Most certifications are free, and the paid certifications are reasonably priced.

Google Certification Alternatives

There are several professional certifications that are considered alternatives to Google certifications and can help you learn new skills and secure an entry-level job in various industries. The most popular are:

What is your learning experience with Google courses? Are they worth it? Let me know in the comments below.