No, MITx Online does not offer free certificates. Certificates are exclusively available to learners who pass a course session on its Verified/Certificate (Paid) Enrollment Track.
Course Certificates can only be earned from a course session that offers a Certificate Track. Most, but not all MITx Online courses offer a Certificate Track. Upgrading to the Certificate Track requires payment of a Course Fee, which varies by course.
However, learners are not required to take courses on the Certificate Track. All MITx Online courses, with very few exceptions†, offer a free Audit Enrollment Track. Audit learners have access to most or all of the same Course Materials as Paid learners—including all of the lecture text and videos. Audit Learners always have access to all of the same Practice Coursework (which does not contribute to Course Score), and may have access to some or all of the same Graded Coursework (which contributes to Course Score) as Paid learners. Audit learners also have full access to the In-Course Discussion Forums, where they can actively participate in the course's community. Audit learners typically do not have access to the course's Final Exam, and they cannot pass the course or earn its Course Certificate.
(†Note: some special assessment-only courses may not offer any Audit-track content. These courses exist only to serve as a Final Exam for another MITx Online course.)
- For more information about the Audit (free) and Verified/Certificate (Paid) Enrollment Tracks, see this FAQ article