Google free courses with certificate: which listed courses give one
Every Google course listed on this page gives a credential at no cost, but the credential is not the same thing on each. Skillshop certifications are awarded for passing an assessment; the two Grow with Google-style courses award a badge or credential for completing the lessons. The Google courses that do cost money are hosted on Coursera and are not listed here.
Skillshop certifications: free to study, free to certify
Google states that Skillshop is available at no cost and that its foundational certifications continue to be free of charge. Each certification course has one assessment section and one or more study sections marked optional; pass the assessment and the certification is awarded. The listed certifications, with the average completion time and level from their Skillshop pages, are:
- Google Ads Search Certification, 3.7 hours, intermediate
- Google Ads Display Certification, 2.9 hours, beginner
- Google Ads Video Certification, 4 hours, beginner
- Google Ads Measurement Certification, 2.7 hours, intermediate
- AI-Powered Shopping ads Certification, 1.3 hours, beginner
- AI-Powered Performance Ads Certification, 4 hours, beginner
- Google Ads Apps Certification, 2.8 hours, beginner
- Google Ads Creative Certification, 3.9 hours, beginner
- Grow Offline Sales Certification, 2.6 hours, beginner
- Google Analytics Certification (2026), no duration shown, intermediate
Grow with Google free courses with certificate
Skillshop keeps a separate section for Grow with Google, YouTube and other topics, and that is where Fundamentals of Digital Marketing lives. It replaced the retired Digital Garage course. Finishing its 17 modules earns a badge or award that appears on your public Skillshop profile and can be downloaded or added to LinkedIn.
Create a Budget in Google Sheets comes from Google's Applied Digital Skills programme on the Google for Education site. The lesson page shows a credential for completion, and the programme describes its video lessons as free of charge. Whether that credential can be verified by a third party is not stated.
Google courses on Coursera: paid, so not listed
Google Career Certificates and Google AI Essentials are sold on Coursera as a monthly subscription after a trial, so no Coursera-hosted Google course appears here. Google also says its newer proctored professional certifications will require a fee, and we leave those out too. For Coursera's own free-to-audit courses see the Coursera hub.
How to share or verify a Skillshop certification
After you pass, Google gives you a unique link per certification. Awards also sit on your public Skillshop profile, where you can print them, copy the URL or send them to LinkedIn. Skillshop certifications are valid for one year from the date issued unless the certificate says otherwise. All appear on our free Google certifications page.
How to sign up and get certified on Skillshop
There is nothing to apply for and nothing to buy:
- Open the course from our listing and sign in to Skillshop; awards attach to your Skillshop profile.
- Work through the study sections if you want them; they are optional and access is unlimited, so you can come back later.
- For the Measurement certification, complete the short pre-survey first, because the training modules only unlock after it.
- Take the assessment section. Passing it is what awards the certification and badge.
- For Fundamentals of Digital Marketing there is no assessment to pass: complete the modules and the award appears under Find Awards on your profile.
What you can study: Google free online courses by subject
All listed courses are self-paced and in English, and nearly all are about advertising and marketing.
Google free online courses in digital marketing
Fundamentals of Digital Marketing is the broad beginner course: strategy, customers, content, social media, search, websites, email, video and Google's marketing tools. The Search, Display, Video and Creative certifications each go deep on one kind of Google Ads campaign or on the ads themselves. See the digital marketing and marketing hubs for other providers.
Analytics and measurement
The Google Analytics Certification (2026) covers the event-based data model, the Reports, Explore and Advertising workspaces, key events, attribution and connecting Analytics with Google Ads. The Google Ads Measurement Certification is narrower: conversion tracking, attribution versus incrementality, and audience solutions. Both are intermediate and assume you already use the tools. Related: free data analytics certifications.
Shopping, apps, automation and store visits
AI-Powered Shopping ads Certification covers Merchant Center, product feeds and Performance Max for Retail. Google Ads Apps Certification is for promoting mobile apps. AI-Powered Performance Ads Certification is about cross-channel automated campaigns. Grow Offline Sales Certification is for businesses with physical stores only.
Spreadsheets and other subjects
Create a Budget in Google Sheets is a lesson of about 7 hours, written for middle-school and high-school students, on researching costs and building a budget with formulas such as SUMIF. It sits in our business hub. No Google cloud, AI or IT course is listed on this page; for those subjects look at Microsoft or IBM.
How long do Google's free certifications take?
Skillshop shows an average completion time for each Google Ads certification, from 1.3 hours for Shopping ads to 4 hours for Video. The Analytics page shows none. Those figures include the optional study sections. Fundamentals of Digital Marketing is the long one at about 40 hours across 17 modules. Access is unlimited; only the certification has a one-year validity.