CFI Free Courses in 2026: What's Actually Free (and What Isn't)

Last updated: 30 September 2026 (CFI’s free-course policy, its one free course and every price checked on CFI’s own pages that day). Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.

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Bottom line: CFI no longer gives away full courses, apart from one. Since September 2024 you get free previews of every course, one complete free course (Careers in Finance) and a library of free articles and templates. Certificates, assessments and CPE credit need a paid membership, which costs $347.90 a year at CFI’s current 30% discount, or $248.50 for students.

Free, in full: Careers in Finance: 1h 30min, Level 1, rated 4.7
Free, in part: Preview videos from the start of every course in the catalog
Free resources: Articles, templates, guides and webinars, including a financial ratios guide
Not free: Full lessons, exercises, assessments, certificates and CPE credit
Paid membership: $347.90/yr Self-Study or $592.90/yr Full-Immersion (30% off); students $248.50 or $423.50

Start the free Careers in Finance course → See CFI membership pricing →

Many guides, including an older version of this one, still list a dozen or more “free CFI courses” with certificates. That changed on 3 September 2024, when CFI moved, in its own words, “from offering a subset of free courses to offering Free Previews of our entire course catalog” (CFI help centre). This page sets out what a free CFI account actually gets you in 2026, which courses are worth previewing for each certification, and when paying makes sense.

What’s free at CFI in 2026

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What	Free?	Details
Careers in Finance course	Yes, the whole course	1h 30min, Level 1, taught by Sebastian Taylor, rated 4.7; enroll with a free account
Course previews	Yes, the opening videos	A selection of videos from the start of every course in the catalog
Free resources library	Yes	Articles, guides and reports, templates and exercises, webinars
Full course lessons and exercises	No	Need a Self-Study or Full-Immersion membership
Course assessments and certificates	No	Must be passed during an all-access membership
CPE credit	No (in practice)	Earned by completing courses and assessments, which need a membership
Certifications (FMVA, CBCA, CMSA and others)	No	Included in both paid plans

The one full free course: Careers in Finance

Careers in Finance is the only complete course CFI gives away. It is an orientation course rather than a skills course: it walks through how companies are financed as they grow, from early-stage venture capital and commercial bank lending to going public and running a mature business, and shows where each finance job fits along the way. CFI uses Tesla’s history as the running case study and adds interviews with people working in those roles.

Length: about 1 hour 30 minutes, self-paced and online
Level: Level 1 (beginner); CFI lists logical thinking as the only prerequisite
Instructor: Sebastian Taylor
Rating: 4.7 on CFI’s course page
Covers: private equity and venture capital, commercial banking and real estate lending, FP&A, capital markets, investment banking, equity research and the roles inside corporate finance teams

Who it suits: students and career changers who know they want to work in finance but not yet where. It is a sensible first hour before choosing between certifications, and it costs nothing. If you already know you want financial modeling or credit analysis, skip ahead to the previews for that track.

Enroll in Careers in Finance free →

Which CFI courses to preview first, by certification

Every CFI course has a free preview, so the useful question is which previews to watch. These are the introductory courses for each of CFI’s certifications. Watch the preview of the first one or two in the track you are considering: if the teaching style works for you, the membership opens the rest, including the assessments that count toward the certification.

How to get CFI’s free course and previews

Create a free CFI account (the “Start Free” button on CFI’s site).
To take the full free course, open Careers in Finance and choose “Enroll For Free”.
To preview any other course, browse CFI’s course catalog, open the course and click “Get Started”; the opening videos play free.
Keep a note of which previews you liked. If you later buy a membership, the rest of each course, its exercises and its assessment open up.

One practical tip: preview two or three courses from different tracks before choosing a certification. The introductory banking, capital markets and financial modeling courses feel very different, and that difference is a better guide to the right certification than job titles are.

Free CFI resources worth bookmarking

Beyond the courses, CFI’s resources library is free without an account and is where most of its free value now sits. It is organized into articles, guides and reports, templates and exercises, and webinars, and it is searchable by topic. The standout is CFI’s Financial Ratios Definitive Guide, which collects more than 30 of the most common ratios for profitability and return, efficiency, liquidity and solvency, with definitions, calculations, interpretation, industry benchmarks and the DuPont pyramid of ratios in one reference. The Excel templates are also free to download and are a useful way to see how CFI structures a model before you pay for the courses that teach you to build one.

What a free CFI account doesn’t include

A free account is genuinely useful for judging CFI, but it is a sampler, not a course library. It does not include:

The rest of each course. After the preview videos, lessons and exercises are locked.
Assessments and certificates. CFI’s course FAQ says the assessment must be passed during an all-access membership, and without it there is no certificate. We tested this on a live free account in August 2026.
Certification credit. Courses only count toward the FMVA, CBCA, CMSA, BIDA or other certifications when you complete them as a member.
CPE credit. CFI is registered with NASBA and says it offers 575-plus verifiable CPE credits across its catalog, but they are earned by completing courses and passing assessments, so they sit behind the membership too.

If you searched for free CFI CPE

There is no route to CFI CPE credit without a paid membership that we could confirm. If you need CPE on a budget, the student rate ($248.50 a year) is the cheapest way in, and CFI’s CPE page lists how its courses map to NASBA requirements. We could not confirm whether the free Careers in Finance course issues CPE credit.

What CFI costs once you go past the free tier

Plan	List price	Price on 30 Sep 2026	What it adds
Self-Study	$497/yr	$347.90/yr (30% off)	All 250+ courses, all 7 certification exams, 15 specializations, CPE credit
Full-Immersion	$847/yr	$592.90/yr (30% off)	Everything in Self-Study plus AI Tutor, Ask an Expert (5 questions a week), personalized model review, premium templates, $300+ in partner discounts
Student Self-Study	$497/yr	$248.50/yr (50% off)	Same as Self-Study; renews at 50% off until cancelled
Student Full-Immersion	$847/yr	$423.50/yr (50% off)	Same as Full-Immersion; renews at 50% off until cancelled

Both paid plans are annual subscriptions and include every CFI certification, so one year can cover the FMVA and a specialist certificate such as the CBCA. For the full breakdown, including team and regional rates, see our CFI pricing guide; for which certification to pick, see our guide to all seven CFI certifications.

See current CFI pricing →

Is CFI’s free tier worth using?

Yes, for two jobs. First, as a test drive: the previews show you exactly how CFI teaches (short videos, Excel-based exercises, practical tone) before you spend $347.90. Second, Careers in Finance is a good free hour if you are still choosing a direction. What the free tier cannot do is give you a credential or anything to show an employer; if that is the goal, the membership is the product.

The honest comparison is with the rest of the market. Our CFI review covers whether the membership is worth it, and our CFI vs Wall Street Prep comparison helps if you are weighing a one-time investment banking course instead.

Free finance learning outside CFI

If you want to keep learning without paying at all, these are the strongest free options:

CFI’s free resources. The resources library of articles, templates and guides is free and covers most finance concepts in plain language.
Aswath Damodaran’s valuation lectures. The NYU Stern professor publishes his classes, spreadsheets and data free on his website.
Coursera with financial aid. Wharton’s Business and Financial Modeling specialization offers financial aid if the subscription is the barrier.
Our wider list. The free-course section of our best financial modeling courses guide covers more free routes.

Frequently asked questions

Are Corporate Finance Institute courses free?

Mostly not. Since 3 September 2024, CFI has offered free previews of every course (a selection of videos from the start of each one) and one complete free course, Careers in Finance. The full lessons, exercises, assessments and certificates of every other course need a paid membership.

What is CFI’s free course?

Careers in Finance, a 1 hour 30 minute, Level 1 course taught by Sebastian Taylor and rated 4.7 on CFI’s site. It explains how the finance industry fits together, from FP&A and commercial banking to investment banking, equity research and venture capital, using Tesla’s growth as a running example. You enroll with a free CFI account.

Do free CFI courses come with a certificate?

Not the previews. A free account opens the preview lessons but not the course assessment, and CFI’s course FAQ says the assessment must be passed during an all-access membership to earn the certificate. We confirmed this on a live free account in August 2026.

Can you get free CPE credits from CFI?

Not in any practical sense. CFI is registered with NASBA and says its courses carry verifiable CPE credit, 575-plus credits across the catalog, but CPE is earned by completing a course and passing its assessment, which requires a paid membership. We could not confirm from CFI’s pages whether the free Careers in Finance course issues CPE credit.

How much does CFI cost after the free previews?

On 30 September 2026 CFI listed Self-Study at $347.90 a year and Full-Immersion at $592.90 a year, both 30% off the $497 and $847 list prices. Verified students pay 50% off: $248.50 or $423.50 a year, renewing at the student rate until cancelled.

How long do CFI’s free previews last?

The previews stay available for as long as you keep your free account, and they are self-paced. Only the preview lessons are available, though: the remaining lessons, exercises and assessment stay behind the membership.

CFI Free Courses in 2026: What’s Actually Free (and What Isn’t)