ITIL 4 vs ITIL 5: Should You Still Take ITIL 4 in 2026?

What Is Actually Confirmed About ITIL 5

PeopleCert, which now runs the ITIL certification scheme, has publicly introduced ITIL Version 5 as the next stage of the framework, positioning it around AI-enabled service management, product-centric thinking, and a more integrated, organisation-wide scope than ITIL 4's service-management focus. An ITIL 5 Foundation exam is live.

PeopleCert has also been explicit about the rollout being gradual and phased rather than a hard cutover: its own guidance states that ITIL 4 remains available for those who wish to continue their current certification journey, and that existing ITIL knowledge and certifications continue to hold their value as ITIL evolves. Beyond Foundation, ITIL 5's higher-level modules are still being released through 2026, so the scheme is not yet complete end to end the way ITIL 4's is.

This article deliberately does not state an ITIL 5 exam fee, question count, or pass mark, because PeopleCert has not published those details in the same way it has for ITIL 4 Foundation, and this site does not publish exam facts it cannot verify against an official source.

Is ITIL 4 Being Retired?

Not on any announced timeline. PeopleCert's own transition guidance tells candidates already partway through ITIL 4 to keep going: finish your ITIL 4 courses and take your ITIL 4 exams to receive your ITIL 4 designations. No retirement date for ITIL 4 Foundation has been announced.

The transition requirement that does exist applies further up the scheme, not at Foundation level: ITIL 4 Practice Manager, Managing Professional, and Strategic Leader holders will need a separate Transformation exam to obtain the equivalent ITIL 5 designation. That requirement does not touch Foundation, which is the level this comparison and this site's ITIL-4 practice content are scoped to.

Why ITIL 4 Foundation Is Still the Right Starting Point

For anyone entering ITSM, service desk, or IT operations who has not yet started a certification, ITIL 4 Foundation is the more predictable choice for three reasons. First, its exam is fully specified and stable: 40 questions, 60 minutes, closed book, a 65 per cent pass mark, and no prerequisite experience, all published and unchanged. Second, it is the credential the current hiring market recognises today, since employers are still building job requirements around ITIL 4's vocabulary and practices, and that will not shift the moment ITIL 5's advanced modules finish rolling out. Third, PeopleCert's own guidance frames completing ITIL 4 first as the more cost-effective route if you are already partway through it, since it requires only the courses you have left rather than starting over on a scheme that is still being built out.

Waiting for ITIL 5 would only make sense if your target role specifically asks for it, or if you can afford to sit idle until PeopleCert finishes publishing the full scheme. For most candidates, that trade is not worth the delay against a foundational credential that is inexpensive, well documented, and still the market standard.

What to Watch Going Forward

Three things are worth tracking rather than assuming. Whether PeopleCert announces a firm retirement date for ITIL 4 Foundation, since none exists as of this writing. Whether employer job postings begin naming ITIL 5 specifically rather than ITIL 4 or ITIL generically, which would be the real signal that the market has shifted. And whether PeopleCert publishes a complete ITIL 5 Foundation exam specification with the same level of detail ITIL 4 has, cost, question count, and pass mark, since that is the point at which a like-for-like comparison becomes possible instead of a directional one.

Until then, the honest comparison is this: ITIL 4 is a complete, stable, well-documented credential you can act on today, and ITIL 5 is a real but still-developing scheme whose advanced tiers are not yet finished rolling out.