- What the Heartsaver CPR AED Card Actually Is
- Who Issues It and How It Is Administered
- The 12 Course Topics You Must Know
- Required Adult Content vs. Optional Child and Infant Modules
- How You Are Assessed: Skills Tests First, Written Exam Sometimes
- Classroom, Blended, Self-Guided and Virtual Formats
- Time, Cost and Card Validity
- Telling It Apart From Look-Alike Courses
- A Topic-Ordered Preparation Plan
- Who Asks for It and What It Does for Your Career
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Heartsaver CPR AED is an American Heart Association course-completion card for laypeople, not a healthcare-provider BLS credential.
- Passing means satisfactorily performing the Adult CPR and AED Skills Test; a written exam is optional and employer-driven.
- If a written exam is given, the current AHA policy requires at least 84%, and reference materials are allowed.
- Online learning alone never completes the course; a hands-on skills session with an AHA Instructor is always required.
What the Heartsaver CPR AED Card Actually Is
Heartsaver CPR AED is an American Heart Association (AHA) course designed for people with little or no medical training who need to respond to a cardiac emergency, a choking event or a drowning. Teachers, coaches, office safety teams, childcare workers, fitness staff and ordinary community members take it. It teaches you to recognize an emergency, call for help, deliver high-quality compressions and breaths, and use an automated external defibrillator (AED).
The wording matters. AHA issues a course-completion card documenting that you satisfactorily performed the required skills at the end of the class. AHA explicitly distinguishes this from certifying someone in CPR. In everyday speech nearly everyone says "Heartsaver CPR AED certification," and this site uses that phrase because it matches how people search. Just remember that, formally, what you hold is a completion card. If your employer asks for "certification," the card is what they want to see. For a broader orientation, see our overview at What Is Heartsaver CPR AED? and the shorter explainer on what Heartsaver CPR AED stands for.
Who Issues It and How It Is Administered
The American Heart Association governs the curriculum, the assessment policy and the card. Training itself is delivered through AHA Training Centers and their Instructors, or through approved hands-on training pathways. No independent testing vendor, such as a third-party proctoring company, appears in the issuer materials reviewed for this article. In practice, this means you never "register for an exam date" with a national body the way you would for a professional licensure test. You enroll in a course with an authorized provider, complete the learning, and demonstrate your skills to an Instructor.
That structure explains why search phrases like "exam dates" do not map neatly onto this credential. Availability is set by individual Training Centers and instructors. If you are looking for scheduling logistics, our guide to Heartsaver CPR AED exam dates and scheduling explains how to find sessions in your area.
The current course follows the 2025 AHA Guidelines. The official U.S. transition guidance requires 2025 teaching materials from March 1, 2026, so any course you take now should be built on the updated content. If a provider is still advertising older materials, ask before you pay.
The 12 Course Topics You Must Know
The AHA course topic list for the CPR AED path contains twelve headings, including an introduction and a conclusion. These are preparation-curriculum topics, not a weighted written-exam blueprint. AHA does not publish percentage weights for them, and none is officially "the largest domain." Treat the list as your syllabus, not a scoring map. A deeper walk-through is available in our complete guide to all 12 content areas.
Domain 1: Introduction
Course orientation and the foundations of responding to an emergency.
- Recognizing when to act and when to call for help
- The role of a bystander in the chain of survival
Domain 2: Adult CPR AED: Compressions, Breaths, and AED
The core of the course and the focus of the required skills test.
- Checking responsiveness and activating emergency response
- Compression technique: hand position, depth, rate and full chest recoil
- Rescue breaths and minimizing interruptions
- AED pad placement, following prompts and clearing the patient before a shock
Domains 3 and 4: Child and Infant CPR AED
Optional components covering size-appropriate technique for younger patients, including infant compressions and optional infant AED material.
Domains 5, 6 and 7: Adult, Child and Infant Choking Relief
Recognizing severe airway obstruction and applying the age-appropriate relief technique. Adult choking is required; the child and infant versions are optional.
Domain 8: Opioid-Associated Emergency
Recognizing a suspected opioid overdose and responding, including the role of CPR when a person stops breathing. This is a current-course topic that older study materials often omit.
Domain 9: Water Competency and Drowning
Understanding drowning risk, basic water competency and how a drowning response differs from a sudden cardiac arrest response.
Domains 10 and 11: Heart Attack and Stroke
Recognizing warning signs, understanding why speed matters and knowing when to activate emergency services. Learners often confuse the signs of a heart attack, which is a circulation problem, with cardiac arrest, which is an electrical and pumping failure.
Domain 12: Conclusion
Wrap-up and the final skills evaluation.
Required Adult Content vs. Optional Child and Infant Modules
Domains 3, 4, 6 and 7 are the optional child and infant components. Everything else listed is required in this course path. That split has practical consequences for what ends up on your card and in your skills test:
| Component | Status in Heartsaver CPR AED | Skills Test Involved |
|---|---|---|
| Adult CPR and AED (Domain 2) | Required | Adult CPR and AED Skills Test |
| Adult choking relief (Domain 5) | Required | Taught within the course |
| Child CPR AED and choking (Domains 3, 6) | Optional | Child CPR Skills Test when taught |
| Infant CPR AED and choking (Domains 4, 7) | Optional | Infant CPR Skills Test when taught |
| Opioid, drowning, heart attack, stroke (Domains 8-11) | Required | Knowledge content within the course |
If you work with children, such as in a school, daycare or youth sports program, tell your provider up front so the child and infant modules are included. Otherwise you may leave with a card that does not reflect the training your employer expects. Our requirements guide covers how to check what your workplace or licensing body wants.
How You Are Assessed: Skills Tests First, Written Exam Sometimes
This is where most online confusion begins. Many prep sites describe a universal, timed, closed-book written exam. That does not match the current AHA policy. Here is what the issuer materials actually establish:
- Skills testing is the core requirement. To complete the course you must finish the applicable curriculum and satisfactorily perform the Adult CPR and AED Skills Test. The Child CPR and Infant CPR Skills Tests are added when those optional components are taught.
- The written exam is optional. It is used when an employer or regulatory body requires one.
- If a written exam is given, the current policy requires at least 84%. Reference materials are allowed, including the workbook or eBook, your notes and the guidelines. The exam uses scenarios, and AHA does not mandate a completion time.
- No discussion is allowed with other students or the instructor while the exam is in progress.
Because the written test, when used, is scenario-based and open-resource, difficulty comes from applying what you learned rather than memorizing numbers. You will need to recognize the right action for a described situation and justify it, such as when to start compressions versus when to relieve choking. For a realistic sense of effort, see how hard the Heartsaver CPR AED exam really is.
Many provider pages advertise pass guarantees or high pass rates. Those are provider marketing, usually reflecting free retesting or remediation policies, not issuer-wide statistics, and they should not be read as evidence about the credential itself.
Classroom, Blended, Self-Guided and Virtual Formats
AHA supports several delivery routes, and the right one depends on your schedule and your employer's rules.
- Classroom: Instructor-led, with video, discussion, practice and testing in one session.
- Blended learning: You complete the online portion first, then attend a hands-on session for practice and skills testing. The faculty guide describes classroom administration of any written exam even for blended learners.
- Self-guided (Heartsaver Direct): Online learning followed by warm-up, practice and skills testing at a manikin training station.
- Virtual: AHA's Heartsaver Virtual permits instructor-observed hands-on completion using a training kit and a feedback app, so a shared physical classroom is not universal.
Key Takeaway
Online study alone is never enough. Whatever route you choose, you must demonstrate compressions, breaths and AED use to an AHA Instructor. Before you book, confirm that your specific configuration issues the exact Heartsaver CPR AED card, since provider pages sometimes blend in First Aid wording.
Time, Cost and Card Validity
How long it takes
AHA's course FAQ estimates about 1.5 hours of instructor-led instruction for the required topics, excluding optional topics and breaks. That figure reflects required video time with some discussion. Other issuer pages show broader duration ranges, and your actual time depends on whether child and infant modules are included. Course hours are not exam timing, so do not conflate them.
What it costs
The official AHA shop lists the 2025 Heartsaver CPR AED Online product (item 25-1401) at USD $19.50 for the online portion, including the student eBook. It was released October 22, 2025, and replaces the earlier 20-1401 product. Critically, the hands-on skills session is purchased separately, and independent Training Centers set their own all-inclusive and renewal fees. No national member or non-member rate schedule was verified. Your total will therefore be the online fee plus the local skills session, or a single bundled price from a provider. Our certification cost breakdown explains how to compare quotes fairly.
Card validity and renewal
The card is valid for two years through the end of the month it was issued. Renewal options, completion requirements and prices are arranged with your Training Center. No separate continuing-education quota was verified for this course-completion card, so renewal is about taking the course again, not accumulating credits.
Telling It Apart From Look-Alike Courses
Search results routinely treat "Heartsaver" as shorthand for several different things. Keep these straight:
| Course | Primary Audience | Key Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Heartsaver CPR AED | Laypeople with little or no medical training | CPR, choking, AED, plus opioid, drowning, heart attack and stroke topics |
| Heartsaver First Aid CPR AED | Workplace and community responders | Adds the separate First Aid curriculum |
| BLS | Healthcare providers and students | Team-based, advanced-airway and provider-level skills |
The eBook bundled with the online product is a combined First Aid CPR AED student eBook, but that does not expand the selected course scope to include first aid. If your employer asks for a "Heartsaver" card, ask whether they want CPR AED only or the First Aid version. For a side-by-side view of how this stacks up against healthcare-level training, see our guide to what Heartsaver CPR AED certification covers.
A Topic-Ordered Preparation Plan
You do not need a long study campaign for a course this focused, but sequencing by topic helps, especially for the open-resource written exam some employers require. Here is a sensible order tied to the actual domains:
Adult core skills (Domains 1, 2, 5)
- Learn the adult CPR and AED sequence first, since it drives the required skills test
- Practice hand placement and rhythm; rehearse the AED steps in order
- Review adult choking relief
Newer emergency topics (Domains 8-11)
- Study opioid response, drowning, heart attack and stroke, which older guides tend to skip
- Practice distinguishing a heart attack from cardiac arrest in scenarios
Optional age modules (Domains 3, 4, 6, 7)
- Only if your employer expects child or infant coverage
- Focus on how technique and depth change with patient size
Because the course uses 2025 content, favor current materials. Our study guide follows this structure, and the one-page cheat sheet works well for a final review before your skills session. To test your recall of the scenario-style content, try the practice questions on the main practice test site.
Who Asks for It and What It Does for Your Career
Heartsaver CPR AED is typically requested by employers and programs whose staff are not healthcare providers but are expected to respond to emergencies: schools and childcare settings, fitness and recreation facilities, workplace safety teams, community organizations and similar roles. It often functions as a baseline requirement rather than a differentiator, so the question is usually "does my job require it?" rather than "will it raise my pay?"
Frequently Asked Questions
AHA sets no minimum learner age and no prerequisite credential, degree, experience hours or references. The course is built for people with little or no medical training. You do have to demonstrate the required skills to pass, so physical ability to perform compressions matters in practice.
No. Online study alone is insufficient. Every route, including blended, self-guided and virtual, ends with hands-on skills practice and testing observed by an AHA Instructor. The online portion is only the knowledge component.
Not by default. The written exam is optional and used when an employer or regulator requires it. If you are given one, the current policy sets an 84% minimum, allows reference materials and imposes no AHA-mandated time limit. Ask your employer or Training Center whether one applies to you.
Two years, through the end of the month it was issued. Renewal is arranged with your Training Center, which sets the requirements and fees for its renewal option.
No. BLS is a healthcare-provider course with team-based and provider-level skills. Heartsaver CPR AED targets laypeople. Always confirm which card your employer or program names, because accepting one in place of the other is the requester's decision, not something this course guarantees.