Can You Use Microsoft Learn During Your Exam? The 2026 Open-Book Rules Explained

Last Updated: June 2026

TL;DR: Microsoft lets you open Microsoft Learn during associate and expert role-based exams, but not during Fundamentals, GitHub or Office Specialist exams. Access covers the learn.microsoft.com domain except Q&A, Practice Assessments and your profile, and the exam timer keeps running throughout. Treat it as a safety net, never a substitute for knowing the material [1].

It is one of the most common questions candidates ask in the final week before sitting a Microsoft certification: can you actually look things up during the exam? The short version is yes, on some exams, within tight limits, and no on others. Microsoft has quietly offered access to Microsoft Learn inside the exam window for several years now, but the rules are precise, they vary by exam type, and they are widely misunderstood.

This guide sets out exactly what Microsoft permits in 2026, which Microsoft AI certifications give you Learn access and which do not, what you can and cannot open once you are in, and how to use the resource without burning the time you need to finish. Every claim here is checked against Microsoft's own documentation, and where Microsoft has not published a clear answer, this guide says so rather than guessing. If you are still choosing where to start, you can browse Examinotion's Microsoft AI exam preparation courses alongside this article.

Are Microsoft exams open book?

Not in the way most people mean by "open book", and Microsoft does not use that phrase. You cannot bring notes, open a second browser, search the wider web, or use an AI assistant. What you can do, on the exams that qualify, is open Microsoft Learn in a panel beside the question and read the official documentation.

A Microsoft community moderator put the distinction well in an official Q&A thread, noting that the exams "are not 'open book'" because "they allow you to access only Microsoft curated sources of content (MS Learn)" [2]. That is the right mental model. The exam is still proctored, still timed, and still closed to everything except one trusted reference. So the accurate answer to "are Microsoft exams open book" is: no, but qualifying exams give you a single, curated reference library while the clock keeps ticking.

What Microsoft Learn access actually means in the exam

Microsoft describes the feature plainly on its official exam experience page [1]:

You can access Microsoft Learn as you complete your associate or expert exam. NOTE that access to Learn is NOT available on Fundamentals exams or GitHub exams. This resource is intended to be used for those questions that describe problems where you may need to look something up on Microsoft Learn. It is not something you should be leveraging to answer every question. If you do, you won't be able to complete the exam in the time allotted, and that is by design.

The same page lists the operating rules, and they are worth reading carefully because each one shapes how useful the feature really is [1]:

• You have access to everything in the learn.microsoft.com domain except Q&A, Practice Assessments, and your profile.
• Extra time has not been added.
• The exam timer continues as you explore Microsoft Learn content.
• The resource is only available on role-based exams, not Fundamentals or Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) exams.
• It is available in the same languages in which the exam is offered.
• You can use Ctrl+F on Windows or Command+F on Mac to search within a given page.

In practice, you select a Microsoft Learn button in the left navigation pane and Learn opens in a split screen to the right of the question. You can widen that panel, expand it to full screen, and open multiple tabs, as long as every tab stays inside learn.microsoft.com. Try to follow a link to any other site, including a GitHub link embedded in a Learn page, and you will see a "site is blocked" message. Close the Learn window and your search history resets, so you start fresh each time you reopen it.

Which Microsoft AI certifications give you Learn access?

This is where candidates trip up, because the answer depends entirely on the exam's level and type. The rule is simple to state: associate and expert role-based exams give you Microsoft Learn access; Fundamentals, GitHub and Microsoft Office Specialist exams do not [1].

The table below applies that rule to the Microsoft AI certifications Examinotion candidates ask about most. It is grouped by answer so you can find your exam quickly.

Two parts of this table need explaining honestly, because the headline rule does not settle them cleanly.

The Fundamentals exams are a firm no. AB-900, the Microsoft 365 Copilot and Agent Administration Fundamentals certification, sits in the Fundamentals tier, so you get no Learn access in the exam room. The same is true of AI-901, the new Azure AI Fundamentals exam, and AI-900, the outgoing Azure AI Fundamentals exam that retires on 30 June 2026 [3]. If you are sitting any of these, plan as though the only resource in the room is your own recall, because that is the reality. Our AB-900 exam guide and AI-901 exam guide both treat the exams as closed-book for exactly this reason.

AB-730 and AB-731 are genuinely unconfirmed, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. Microsoft's policy grants the resource to "associate or expert" exams. Both the AI Business Professional (AB-730) and AI Transformation Leader (AB-731) certifications are published at beginner level with a 45-minute exam, which is the same length as a Fundamentals exam, yet neither carries the word "Fundamentals" in its title [5] [6]. Microsoft's documentation neither confirms nor denies Learn access for these two specific exams. The responsible approach is to prepare for AB-730 and AB-731 as if they are closed-book, then treat any Learn access you do get on the day as a bonus rather than a plan. If certainty matters to you, check the exam page or contact Microsoft Credentials Support before you book. Our guides on how to pass AB-730 and how to pass AB-731 are written on the safe assumption that you cannot look anything up.

There is one more caveat for the newest exams. AB-620 and AI-103 are both in beta as of June 2026. Microsoft's policy applies to role-based exams in general, and both are clearly intermediate associate-level exams, but Microsoft has not separately confirmed that the Learn feature is switched on during beta delivery. If you are sitting a beta, the Microsoft beta exam guide explains how the beta experience can differ from a generally available exam.

What you can and cannot open

It helps to be concrete about the boundaries, because the feature is more limited than the phrase "access to Microsoft Learn" suggests.

You can open any documentation article, conceptual overview, how-to guide, reference page or architecture diagram hosted on learn.microsoft.com. You can search within a page using Ctrl+F or Command+F, open several documentation tabs at once, and resize the panel to read comfortably [1].

You cannot reach three parts of Microsoft Learn that would otherwise be tempting [1]:

• Microsoft Q&A, the community question-and-answer forum, is blocked. You cannot search for someone else's answer to a similar problem.
• Practice Assessments are blocked. The free practice questions you used while revising are not available to you mid-exam.
• Your profile is blocked. You cannot sign in, so your saved collections, bookmarks and learning history are all out of reach.

And you cannot leave the domain at all. Every link that points somewhere other than learn.microsoft.com is dead inside the exam, so the open web, vendor blogs, Stack Overflow and GitHub repositories are simply not on the table.

The catch: the clock never stops

The single most important fact about in-exam Learn access is the one candidates forget under pressure. The timer does not pause. Microsoft states it twice, in different ways: "Extra time has not been added" and "The exam timer will continue as you explore Microsoft Learn content" [1].

That changes everything about how you should treat the feature. Reading a single documentation page properly can swallow two or three minutes, and a role-based exam gives you on average a little over two minutes per question. If you try to verify every answer against Learn, you will not finish, and Microsoft says this outcome is deliberate: looking everything up "is not something you should be leveraging to answer every question. If you do, you won't be able to complete the exam in the time allotted, and that is by design" [1].

The takeaway is blunt. Microsoft Learn access exists to rescue you on the handful of questions where you need to confirm one precise detail, not to carry you through an exam you have not prepared for. If your plan is to look things up, you do not have a plan.

Practice Assessments are not the same as in-exam access

A frequent source of confusion is the free Microsoft Practice Assessment. These are official practice tests on Microsoft Learn that mirror the style and difficulty of the real questions, and they are an excellent revision tool [7]. They are also, critically, one of the three areas explicitly blocked during the live exam [1].

So the Practice Assessment is a preparation resource you use beforehand, not a reference you reach for on the day. Use it heavily while you study, then expect it to disappear the moment the real exam begins. The same applies to any notes you have saved in your Microsoft Learn profile, since the profile is blocked too.

How to use Microsoft Learn well in the exam

If your exam qualifies for Learn access, a little discipline turns it from a time trap into a genuine safety net. The candidates who benefit are the ones who barely need it.

• Answer from knowledge first. Work through the exam at your normal pace and answer every question you can without opening Learn. Use the review flag for anything you want to double-check.
• Spend your Learn time on flagged questions only. Come back at the end and open Learn for the small number of questions where one specific fact would change your answer, a default value, a service limit, a supported region, or which tier includes a feature.
• Search the page, not the site. Navigate to the documentation area you already know is relevant, then use Ctrl+F or Command+F to jump straight to the term. Browsing from the Learn home page wastes the time you are trying to protect.
• Know the documentation's shape before exam day. The best preparation for using Learn in the exam is having read the real documentation during revision, so you know where the answer lives. Treat the official skills outline as a map of the docs, for example the AB-900 study guide for Copilot administration topics.
• Set a hard limit. Decide in advance how many minutes you will allow yourself in Learn, and stop when you hit it. A confirmed answer on one question is not worth two unanswered questions at the end.

What this means for your preparation

The honest implication runs in the opposite direction to what most candidates hope. Learn access should make you study harder, not less.

If you are sitting a Fundamentals exam, AB-900, AI-901 or AI-900, there is no resource in the room at all, so every fact has to be in your head. That is the clearest case for drilling until recall is automatic rather than merely familiar. Timed practice questions are the most efficient way to get there, so work through realistic question banks for AB-900 or AI-901 until the answers come without hesitation.

If you are sitting AB-730 or AB-731, prepare exactly as if it is closed-book, because Microsoft has not confirmed that it is not. Anything else is a gamble on an unverified assumption.

If you are sitting a role-based associate or expert exam such as AB-620, AB-100 or AI-102, you will have Learn, but the timer maths means it can only ever cover a few questions. It rewards people who already know the material and need to confirm a detail, and it punishes people who lean on it. So the resource does not lower the bar for preparation, it just gives well-prepared candidates a thin margin of safety.

Across every one of these exams, the same approach wins: build genuine recall through realistic, timed practice, then walk in able to answer from knowledge. To see how the exams connect across the fundamentals, associate and expert tiers, the Microsoft AI certification roadmap maps the whole path, and you can start practising for your exam whenever you are ready.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use Microsoft Learn during my Microsoft certification exam?

Yes, but only on associate and expert role-based exams. Microsoft does not offer Learn access on Fundamentals exams, GitHub exams or Microsoft Office Specialist exams. On qualifying exams you can open the learn.microsoft.com documentation in a split screen beside each question while you work [1].

Does the exam timer keep running when I open Microsoft Learn?

Yes. Microsoft is explicit that "the exam timer will continue as you explore Microsoft Learn content" and that "extra time has not been added". Opening Learn never pauses your clock, so every minute you spend reading documentation is a minute taken from answering questions [1].

What exactly can I access on Microsoft Learn during the exam?

You can access everything on the learn.microsoft.com domain except three areas: Microsoft Q&A, Practice Assessments, and your personal profile. You cannot sign in, and you cannot navigate to any external site. Links that leave learn.microsoft.com, including GitHub links, are blocked during the exam [1].

Can I use the free Practice Assessments as a reference during the exam?

No. Practice Assessments are one of the three parts of Microsoft Learn explicitly blocked during a live exam. They are a preparation tool to use while revising, not a reference you can open on the day. Plan to rely on documentation articles only, and only on qualifying exams [1].

Do AB-730 and AB-731 give Microsoft Learn access?

Microsoft has not confirmed this. The policy grants access to associate and expert exams, while AB-730 and AB-731 are published at beginner level with a 45-minute format, the same length as a Fundamentals exam. Prepare for both as if they are closed-book, and verify with Microsoft before booking if it matters [5] [6].

Are AI-900 and AI-102 still available in 2026?

Both retire on 30 June 2026. AI-900 is replaced by the new AI-901 Azure AI Fundamentals exam, and AI-102 is replaced by AI-103. If you pass either exam before the retirement date you keep the certification on your transcript until it expires, so sit it before the deadline if you are ready [3] [4].

Conclusion

So, can you use Microsoft Learn during your exam? On associate and expert role-based exams, yes, within the learn.microsoft.com domain, minus Q&A, Practice Assessments and your profile, and always against a running clock. On Fundamentals exams such as AB-900, AI-901 and AI-900, no. And on AB-730 and AB-731, Microsoft simply has not said, so the only safe assumption is that you cannot.

The deeper lesson is that Learn access is a poor substitute for preparation and a decent reward for it. The candidates who finish on time and pass are the ones who could have passed without ever opening it. Build that level of recall with realistic, timed practice, then treat any documentation access you get on the day as a backstop, not a strategy.

When you are ready to put that into practice, browse Examinotion's Microsoft AI exam preparation courses to find your exam and start working through questions that build the recall the exam room demands.

Sources

1. Exam duration and exam experience — Microsoft Learn, accessed 2026-06-17
2. Are the DP-100 and AI-102 exams now open book? (Microsoft Q&A) — Microsoft Q&A, accessed 2026-06-17
3. Exam AI-900: Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals — Microsoft Learn, accessed 2026-06-17
4. Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate (AI-102) — Microsoft Learn, accessed 2026-06-17
5. Microsoft Certified: AI Business Professional (AB-730) — Microsoft Learn, accessed 2026-06-17
6. Microsoft Certified: AI Transformation Leader (AB-731) — Microsoft Learn, accessed 2026-06-17
7. Microsoft Certifications frequently asked questions — Microsoft Learn, accessed 2026-06-17