Harvard free online courses with certificate: what each kind gives you
Every Harvard course listed here leads to a certificate, but only the CS50 family gives one at no cost. The rest are HarvardX courses on edX, where the certificate is a paid upgrade.
CS50 courses: a free certificate for scoring 70% or more
The CS50 courses are published as OpenCourseWare on cs50.harvard.edu. Submit every problem set, lab or project, score at least 70% on each, and Harvard issues a free CS50 Certificate. It is not a PDF; it is issued at a unique URL that anyone can open to check it. CS50x works this way, and so do its follow-on courses in Python, SQL, web programming, cybersecurity, R, Scratch, artificial intelligence and law.
Each CS50 course also runs on edX, where the material is free to audit but the verified certificate has a fee: Harvard's listings give $219 for CS50x, $299 for the AI course, $299 for Scratch, $299 for the lawyers' course and $199 for web programming. The free certificate covers the same work.
HarvardX courses on edX: free to audit, verified certificate at a stated price
HarvardX courses are marked "Free" on Harvard's catalogue with "Audit for Free" as the credit option. Auditing gives you the videos, readings and practice exercises; graded assignments and the certificate sit on the paid verified track. The cheapest certificate here is $69 for Tangible Things; the dearest is $299, for courses such as Contract Law.
Audit access is time-limited: edX's help centre says audit learners keep the content for the estimated course length shown on the course page, then must pay or join a later session. For certificates that cost nothing, stay with CS50 or see the Harvard free certifications page.
How to sign up for Harvard free online courses
There is no application and no admission, and none of these courses carries Harvard credit.
- For a CS50 course, open the course site on cs50.harvard.edu and start at week 0; the material needs no account.
- Create a free edX account when you want to submit work for feedback and count towards the free certificate.
- For a HarvardX course, follow the enrol link from pll.harvard.edu to edX and choose the audit track, which costs nothing.
- Note the estimated length on the edX page, because audit access ends when that period has passed.
- Upgrade to the verified track only if you want graded work and the paid certificate.
What you can study at Harvard for free
The clusters below match the subjects people search for and say plainly where nothing is listed.
Computer science and programming with CS50
CS50's Introduction to Computer Science runs eleven weeks at 10 to 20 hours a week, from C through Python, SQL and web development. For one language only, Introduction to Programming with Python is ten weeks at 3 to 9 hours a week.
- Introduction to Databases with SQL: seven weeks, no programming assumed
- Web Programming with Python and JavaScript: nine weeks, intermediate
- Introduction to Cybersecurity: five weeks, for non-programmers too
- Introduction to Programming with Scratch: nine weeks, block-based, for complete beginners
- Introduction to Programming with R: seven weeks, aimed at data analysis
- Computer Science for Lawyers: ten weeks, concepts rather than code
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
CS50's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python is the only AI course here with a free certificate, assessed through projects, with CS50x or a year of Python expected first. It runs seven weeks at 10 to 30 hours a week. With a paid certificate, Machine Learning and AI with Python builds from decision trees to random forests ($299). Data Science: Building Machine Learning Models does similar work in R ($149). More are on the AI certifications page.
Business, leadership and finance
The business courses are all HarvardX: free to audit, paid certificate. Exercising Leadership: Foundational Principles covers adaptive challenges at 2 to 3 hours a week ($209). Remote Work Revolution for Everyone is the shortest at three weeks ($149). Strategic Finance for Nonprofit Leaders covers budgets and financial statements over six weeks ($199). Other providers are on the business courses hub.
Statistics and probability
Statistics and R is an introduction to inference over four weeks ($219). Data Analysis: Basic Probability and Statistics builds probability up from counting over seven weeks ($149). Introduction to Probability is the rigorous option at 5 to 10 hours a week ($209).
Constitution, government, nursing and public speaking
No course on the United States constitution or on government is listed here. The closest are Justice, political philosophy from Aristotle to Rawls, and Leadership for Purposeful Change, a Kennedy School course on public leadership. There is no nursing course either. For public speaking, Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking has you write an opinion editorial and a short speech over eight weeks ($209 certificate).
Are Harvard's free courses worth it, and are they transferable?
What you get for nothing is the full teaching material: every lecture, note and problem set for CS50, and the videos and readings of a HarvardX course while your audit lasts. For CS50 the credential is free too; for HarvardX the fee is the only thing separating audit from verified, so it comes down to whether you need the certificate.
On transfer: Harvard states that none of these courses carries Harvard credit or admission, and nothing on its pages says the certificates transfer elsewhere. Treat them as evidence of self-study, not academic credit.