ServSafe Manager certification runs five years from your exam date; Food Handler and Alcohol certificates run three. Allergens carries no published validity window at all, since ServSafe issues it as a certificate of completion rather than a certification exam.
Renewing a ServSafe Manager certification online means retaking the identical 90-question, 80-scored exam a first-time candidate takes, passing at 56 correct. A failed retest is capped at four attempts in any 12-month period, with at least a 60-day wait required after a second miss.
A ServSafe Food Handler course and its 40-question assessment run around $15 together, direct from ServSafe, with three attempts included before a repurchase is required. The certificate itself stays valid for three years, not the five most people assume from the Manager credential.
A ServSafe Food Handler certificate runs three years — shorter than the five-year figure often borrowed from the Manager credential. Renewal means retaking the same 40-question assessment and passing 30 of 40 (75%), non-proctored, with three attempts allowed before the course has to be bought again.
The ServSafe Manager exam is 90 questions, 80 scored, and you pass at 56 of 80 — 70%, not the 75% most sites publish. A supervisor-and-GM guide to who on your team needs it, the five-year validity, the 60-day retest rule, and what the 9th Edition added.
A failed ServSafe Manager attempt costs a full second exam voucher, priced the same as the first, which is why a $149 to $179 course-and-exam bundle can beat two $99 exam-only attempts. Renewal repeats the same exam every five years.
ServSafe Manager certification runs five years and renews by retaking the same 90-question, 80-scored exam. Food Handler and Alcohol Primary certificates run three years, not five, which is where most renewal advice online gets it wrong.
ServSafe Manager certification lasts five years from your exam date; Food Handler and Alcohol certificates run on a shorter three-year clock, a distinction many prep sites still get wrong.
