Part 107 Renewal: The Certificate Never Expires, the Currency Does

Almost everyone calls it "Part 107 renewal." Nothing is actually renewed. A remote pilot certificate has no expiry date — it does not lapse, it is never reissued, and you never pay for it again.

What does run out is your aeronautical knowledge recency, which must be refreshed every 24 calendar months by completing a free online recurrent training course. Fly after that window closes and you are operating without meeting the requirements of 14 CFR 107.65, whatever the plastic card in your pocket says.

What changed, and why the confusion exists

When Part 107 began in 2016, staying current meant returning to a testing center every 24 months and paying to sit a recurrent knowledge test. That is where "renewal" as a term comes from, and it is why so much older material describes a paid retest.

The rule changed in 2021. Recurrent knowledge is now demonstrated by completing an online training course rather than by sitting a proctored exam. There is no fee, no testing center, and no pass mark in the traditional sense — you work through the material and complete the course.

If you are reading a guide that tells you to book a recurrent test at a PSI center and budget $175 for it, that guide is describing the pre-2021 system.

Counting 24 calendar months

The phrase is calendar months, and it works in your favor.

Your recency runs to the end of the twenty-fourth calendar month after the month in which you completed the training — not to the anniversary date.

Complete recurrent training on 14 March 2026. March is month zero. Your recency runs through 31 March 2028.

That gives you the whole of the final month regardless of which day you completed it. Someone who trained on 31 March gets exactly the same deadline as someone who trained on 1 March.

The same counting applies to the initial knowledge test: if you passed the UAG test on 14 March 2026, your first recurrent training is due by 31 March 2028.

Which course you need

There are two, and taking the wrong one wastes an hour without satisfying anything.

Both are hosted free at FAASafety.gov. Register or sign in, find the course, work through the modules, and complete it. You receive a certificate of completion.

Keep that completion certificate. Nothing about your recurrent training is printed on your card or visible in IACRA, so the completion record is your only evidence. The FAA can ask to see it under 14 CFR 107.7, and an insurer or client may ask as well. Save the PDF somewhere you will still find it in two years.

What the recurrent course actually covers

The course is not a re-run of the initial exam. It concentrates on the areas where remote pilots most commonly go wrong in practice, and on rules that have changed since Part 107 began:

• Applicable regulations, with emphasis on anything amended since your last training
• Airspace classification and operating requirements
• Emergency procedures and in-flight emergencies under 107.21
• Crew resource management
• Aeronautical decision-making
• Physiological effects of drugs and alcohol
• Operations at night, and the anti-collision lighting requirement in 107.29
• Operations over people under subpart D
• Maintenance and preflight inspection procedures

It is genuinely worth reading rather than clicking through. The subpart D categories and the night rules both changed after the original rule, and a pilot certificated in 2018 who has never revisited them is working from a version of Part 107 that no longer exists.

If you also hold a part 61 certificate

Holders of a part 61 pilot certificate — private, commercial, ATP, or a flight instructor certificate — have a different route on both sides of the process.

For the initial certificate, 14 CFR 107.61(d)(2) allows a part 61 holder who is current on their flight review to complete the online initial training course instead of sitting the UAG knowledge test. That saves the $175 and the testing center visit, but the application still goes through IACRA and must be processed by a Flight Standards office, a designated pilot examiner, an airman certification representative or a certificated flight instructor.

For recurrent training, the same principle applies: course ALC-515 rather than ALC-677, and your part 61 flight review currency has to be intact for that route to be available. If your flight review has lapsed, you fall back to the non-part-61 course.

What happens if you let it lapse

Nothing dramatic happens automatically — and that is the trap. No letter arrives, no notification is sent, and your certificate does not change in any visible way.

What changes is that from the first day past the deadline, you no longer meet the recency requirement in 107.65, so you may not act as remote pilot in command or manipulate the controls of a small unmanned aircraft under Part 107.

Practical consequences:

• Flying anyway is a regulatory violation, and the FAA can pursue enforcement up to certificate suspension or revocation.
• Your insurance may not respond. Most UAS policies require the operation to be conducted lawfully.
• A client contract that warrants Part 107 compliance is breached.

The fix is simple and there is no penalty: complete the course. There is no waiting period, no fee, and no reapplication. Your recency restarts from the month you complete it. What you cannot do is fly in the gap and treat it as retroactively cured.

The other thing people confuse this with

Three separate clocks exist, and mixing them up is common:

Aircraft registration genuinely does expire, genuinely does cost money, and is genuinely per aircraft. Someone who says "my Part 107 expired" usually means either their recency lapsed or their aircraft registration did.

A practical way not to miss it

The FAA does not remind you. Two habits cover it:

1. Put the deadline in a calendar the day you complete the course, set to the last day of the twenty-fourth month, with a reminder 60 days ahead.
2. Store the completion certificate with your registration documents, so the whole compliance picture lives in one place.

If you fly commercially, add a line to your pre-job checklist confirming both your recency date and the aircraft registration expiry. It takes five seconds and it is the kind of thing that goes unnoticed until a client asks.

Frequently asked questions

Does a Part 107 certificate expire?

No. The remote pilot certificate itself has no expiry date and never needs to be reissued. What expires is your aeronautical knowledge recency, which must be refreshed every 24 calendar months.

How often do I need Part 107 recurrent training?

Every 24 calendar months. The requirement runs to the end of the twenty-fourth calendar month after the month you last completed training, so training completed in March 2026 remains valid through 31 March 2028.

How much does Part 107 recurrent training cost?

Nothing. Since 2021 the requirement is met by a free online course at FAASafety.gov, replacing the paid recurrent knowledge test taken at a testing center under the original rule.

Which recurrent course do I take?

ALC-677 if you hold only a remote pilot certificate. ALC-515 if you also hold a part 61 pilot certificate and are current on your flight review.

What happens if my Part 107 recurrent training lapses?

You may not act as remote pilot in command or manipulate the flight controls under Part 107 until you complete the training. There is no fee or waiting period to get current again, but flying during the lapse is a regulatory violation and may void your insurance.

Do I need to go to a testing center for recurrent training?

No. Recurrent training is completed entirely online at FAASafety.gov. A testing center visit is only required for the initial knowledge test.

Recurrent training refreshes the rules, but it does not tell you which ones you have forgotten. The free readiness assessment gives you a topic-by-topic breakdown in about fifteen minutes.

Sources

• FAA — Become a Certificated Remote Pilot
• 14 CFR 107.65 — Aeronautical knowledge recency
• 14 CFR 107.7 — Inspection, testing, and demonstration of compliance
• FAASafety.gov — recurrent training courses
• FAADroneZone — aircraft registration