Funding · United States Air Force & Space Force
Air Force COOL
Credentialing Opportunities On-Line is the Air Force paying for your professional certifications while you serve — up to $4,500 over your career, for enlisted Airmen and Guardians. This page is the whole picture: who qualifies, what the money covers, how the application actually runs in AFVEC, and the mistakes that get requests denied.
- $4,500lifetime, per person
- EnlistedAir Force & Space Force
- 5-levelin your primary AFSC
- AFVECwhere every request starts
What AF COOL is
AF COOL funds the civilian certifications and licences that line up with what you already do in uniform. The Air Force is not being generous for its own sake: a certified Airman is a more capable Airman, the credential satisfies DoD workforce requirements, and it is worth real money to you the day you take the uniform off. The benefit has a hard ceiling of $4,500 for your entire career and it is spent, not granted — every exam you fund draws that balance down.
What it is
- Payment for certification and licensure exams tied to your career field
- A career-long pot you draw on until it is empty
- Paid directly to the vendor, not reimbursed to you
- Available to enlisted Airmen and Guardians, including Guard and Reserve on qualifying orders
What it is not
- Not Tuition Assistance — degrees are a different benefit
- Not open to officers, civilian employees or contractors
- Not an annual allowance — nothing resets in October
- Not usable after you separate
Who qualifies
Work down this list before you spend an evening choosing a credential. Every line is checked at the point you apply, not at the point you test.
- Enlisted, Air Force or Space Force. Officers, civilians and contractors are not eligible.
- A 5-skill level in your primary AFSC. If your career field has no 5-level, the AF COOL Program Office can load a goal by hand — go through your education office rather than writing yourself off.
- Guard and Reserve: on Title 10 or Title 32 §502(f) orders, with the credential completed while those orders run.
- In good standing. No Unfavorable Information File, not on the control roster, no referral EPR, and current on your fitness test.
- An AFVEC profile with an approved credentialing goal. The goal comes first; funding requests hang off it.
- Supervisor approval. Every request routes to your supervisor, and an unapproved request dies on its own schedule.
- Still serving at completion. The credential has to be finished while you are on active status.
Eligibility for the program is not the same as eligibility for a credential. Certifying bodies set their own prerequisites — CISSP wants five years of experience, PMP wants documented project hours. AF COOL will fund an exam you are not yet allowed to sit, and the exam provider will still turn you away.
What the money covers
Fundable
- Certification and licensure exam fees
- The core of the program. Includes each part of a multi-part exam.
- Administrative and application fees
- The fees a certifying body charges to sit or to process the credential.
- Recertification fees
- Where the recertification requires you to test again, for a credential AF COOL funded the first time.
- Books and study materials
- Funded up to a published cap. The cap has changed over the years — confirm the current figure in the handbook.
- Preparatory courses
- Funded in some years and for some credentials, under a separate cap. This is the line that moves most; confirm before you count on it.
Not fundable
- College tuition
- That is Tuition Assistance, a separate benefit with its own application.
- Continuing education units (CEUs)
- Maintaining a credential with CEUs rather than a retest is on you.
- Credentials your unit must fund
- If a certification is a duty requirement, it is funded through the mission, not AF COOL.
- Anything bought before approval
- Pay out of pocket first and you are unlikely to see it reimbursed.
- Work completed off orders
- Guard and Reserve members have to be on qualifying orders when the credential is completed.
How the $4,500 actually behaves
- It is a career total. Not per year, not per assignment, not per credential.
- Several credentials, one pot. Two or three well-chosen certifications usually fit inside it; a scattergun approach does not.
- One at a time. The program expects you to finish what you started before opening the next goal in the same category.
- Senior NCOs get more room. E-7 through E-9 have an additional leadership-credential allowance.
- Spend it on sequence, not trophies. Security+ then CySA+ then a Cisco security credential compounds. Three unrelated entry-level certificates do not.
How to apply, step by step
The order matters more than anything else on this page. Do these out of sequence and the request is denied on process grounds, whatever the merits.
-
Sign in to AFVEC
Common Access Card sign-in at afvec.us.af.mil, then AF COOL under the education programs. If your profile is stale, fix it here rather than halfway through an application.
-
Find the credential on your AFSC's list
Search by your specialty and read what comes back. This list is the authority — not a vendor's marketing page, and not what a colleague funded three years ago. Note the credential's exact official name; you will need it to match everywhere else.
-
Create the credentialing goal
The goal is the container for everything that follows, and it needs supporting documentation attached. No goal, no funding request.
-
Get a price quote
An itemised quote from the exam provider or the training provider, showing exactly what the Air Force would be paying for. We issue these in the format the funding request expects, usually same day.
-
Submit the funding request
Inside the goal, with your exam centre or proctor, the cost, and the testing window you intend to use. Submit it with real margin before your intended test date — the published cut-offs are minimums, not targets.
-
Your supervisor approves it
They get an e-mail and click through. Warn them it is coming. This is where most delays live, and an unapproved request expires by itself.
-
The AF COOL office processes payment
Requests are worked in the order received, and the office pays the vendor directly. Do not buy anything yourself in the meantime.
-
Test, then report the result
Send your grade or completion certificate to the AF COOL office inside the reporting window, pass or fail. This is the single most commonly missed step, and missing it is what turns a benefit into a debt.
Have these in hand before you start
- An AFVEC profile — Common Access Card sign-in at afvec.us.af.mil.
- An approved credentialing goal — Created in AF COOL inside AFVEC, before any funding request exists.
- The exact credential — Chosen from the list AFVEC shows for your AFSC, by its full official name.
- A price quote — From the exam provider or the training provider, showing the exact cost. We issue these — see below.
- Your testing window — The date range you intend to test in, inside the window AFVEC allows.
- The exam centre or delivery method — In person at a test centre or an approved online proctor.
- A supervisor who is expecting it — The request routes to them for approval, and it expires if they sit on it.
Why requests get denied
None of these are close calls. Each one is a request that was going to be funded and was not.
Funding requests have to be in before a published cut-off. Leave a working week or more — a request submitted the day before a test is a request that does not get paid.
Unapproved requests time out on their own. Tell your supervisor it is coming and what the e-mail looks like.
An overdue fitness test, a UIF, a control roster entry or a referral EPR is checked at application. Clear it first.
AF COOL pays the vendor. Buying the voucher on a personal card and submitting a receipt is the most common way people end up funding their own certification.
The credential has to be one AFVEC maps to your AFSC, or one of the limited allowances outside it. A certification that is perfect for your civilian plans but unmapped is not automatically fundable.
Pass or fail, the grade or completion certificate goes to the AF COOL office inside the reporting window. Miss it and the cost can be recouped from you.
Approved funding is tied to dates. If you slip past them, the approval does not simply wait for you.
It is $4,500 for a career, not per year. Spend it on three credentials that do nothing for you and there is no fourth.
Which certification is worth your $4,500
The credentials below are the ones Airmen most often fund through AF COOL and that we teach as full training camps. Confirm any of them against your own AFSC list in AFVEC before you build a goal — the mapping is set by the Air Force, not by us.
Cyber and information security
The 1D7X1, 1D7X1Q, 3D0X2 and 1B4X1 crowd, plus anyone chasing a DoD 8140 qualification.
Networking and infrastructure
Client systems, cyber transport, RF transmission and anyone who owns the network.
Cloud
Increasingly the credential that turns a technical AFSC into a civilian salary.
Project and program management
For SNCOs moving toward management, and for anyone planning the transition out.
How thinQtank fits in
We are a training provider, not the Air Force: the goal and the funding request are yours to submit, and nobody outside your chain can approve them. What we can do is make sure nothing on our side of the paperwork is the reason you wait.
A quote that matches the request
Itemised, on letterhead, with the credential named exactly as AFVEC lists it and the exam cost broken out from anything else. Usually back to you the same day.
Your seat held while you wait
Approvals move at their own pace. Tell us which camp you are aiming at and we will hold the seat rather than make you gamble on the timing.
Retakes, in part or in full
Every student can retake the class, in person or online, for 24 months. If a first attempt does not go your way, the training is still there — which matters when the exam money is finite.
Taught live, in person or on WebEx
Deployed, on shift work or three time zones from the classroom, you attend the same live camp as everyone else rather than a recording.
A pre-class call with your instructor
Every student gets an assessment call before the camp starts, so the week is aimed at what you actually need rather than the syllabus average.
A plan, not a purchase
If you have $4,500 and eight years left to serve, the order you take certifications in matters more than which one you start with. That conversation is free — call us.
We do not teach just for the test: 25+ years of training, unlimited retakes for 24 months, and instructors who have done the job. What that means in practice.
Questions Airmen actually ask
Is AF COOL the same as Tuition Assistance?
No. Tuition Assistance pays for college courses toward a degree. AF COOL pays for professional certifications and licences. They are separate benefits with separate applications and separate money, and using one does not spend the other.
Can officers use AF COOL?
No. AF COOL is an enlisted benefit. Officers have other routes to credentialing, and civilian employees and contractors are not eligible at all.
Can Guard and Reserve members use it?
Yes, on qualifying Title 10 or Title 32 §502(f) orders, and the credential has to be completed while those orders are in effect. Components sometimes fund their own members through their own channels, so check with your education office as well.
Do I need a 5-skill level?
Generally yes, in your primary AFSC. A few career fields have no 5-level, and the AF COOL Program Office can load a goal manually in those cases — contact them through your education office rather than assuming you are locked out.
How much is the benefit, exactly?
Up to $4,500 for your whole career. It is not an annual allowance and it does not reset with the fiscal year. You can spend it across several credentials until it runs out.
Does a failed exam cost me my benefit?
The money spent on that attempt is gone from your $4,500, but the published guidance has not treated a genuine failure as a debt. What does get recouped is failing to report a result, or not showing up. Report the failure, and you remain eligible up to your remaining balance.
Can I use it for a certification unrelated to my AFSC?
There is a limited allowance for credentials outside your career field, and Senior NCOs have an additional leadership-credential allowance. The size of that allowance has changed, so confirm it in the current handbook before you build a plan around it.
Will AF COOL pay for the class as well as the exam?
Sometimes, under a separate cap, and this is the part of the program that changes most often. Plan the exam funding first and treat the course funding as the thing to confirm in AFVEC before you commit.
Who does the money go to?
The Air Force pays the vendor directly. That is why a quote in the right format matters, and why buying it yourself first is the wrong order of operations.
How long does approval take?
It is a chain: your goal, your funding request, your supervisor, then the AF COOL office, which works requests in the order they arrive. Days, not hours, and busier at the end of the fiscal year.
Can I use AF COOL after I separate?
No. It funds credentials completed while you are serving. If you are within a year of separating, plan the sequence now rather than later — this is worth a phone call.
Does thinQtank handle the paperwork for me?
We do the parts a vendor can legitimately do: an itemised quote in the format the funding request needs, the credential named exactly as AFVEC lists it, exam and retake details in writing, and enrolment held until your approval comes through. The goal and the funding request are yours to submit — the Air Force requires that.
Start with a conversation, not a form
Tell us your AFSC, how long you have left to serve and where you want to land afterwards. We will tell you which credentials your $4,500 should buy and in what order — and if the answer is that you should spend it somewhere other than here, we will tell you that too.
Program information reviewed September 2026 against Air Force published guidance. AF COOL rules change: confirm current caps, windows and eligibility in the AF COOL Handbook inside AFVEC before you apply. thinQtank Learning is a training provider and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or an agent of the Department of the Air Force.