AAN and Notary.net Reviewed: The $25 Arizona Notary Courses, Assessed
Disclosure: we publish AzNotaryClass.com, a $69-at-launch competing course. Both providers below charge less than we do, and both are legitimate businesses. This review sticks to facts verifiable on their own pages as of September 30, 2026. Prices change, so confirm before you buy. Standing policy: Arizona designates no official trainer or endorsed training company. Not them, not us.
The $25 tier, in one paragraph
Two established companies sell Arizona notary courses at $25: the American Association of Notaries (AAN), a Texas bond-and-supplies seller that has been around since 1994, and Notary.net, which sells a streaming-video course. Both are cheap because both are loss leaders for other products. AAN wants your bond and supplies business. Notary.net gets traffic as an affiliate target of the free site Open Exam Prep. Cheap is not the same as bad. But as of September 2026, neither is current on the rules that now define this exam, and neither offers a timed simulation. Those two facts should drive your decision.
AAN: the American Association of Notaries
AAN has operated since 1994 out of Houston, Texas, sells notary bonds and supplies (it runs several storefronts, including arizonanotaries.com and notarypublicstamps.com), holds BBB accreditation, and partners with a surety company. Its core business, in other words, is being paid when you get commissioned and need a bond. The Arizona course is priced the way a supplier prices accessories.
What $25 buys, per its own pages:
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Course | $25, labeled “3-hour.” The format (video, text, or mixed) is not published |
| Standalone test | $11.95 for a 140-question practice test, keyed to the 2025 Reference Manual |
| Refund | 30-day refund policy, published |
| Extras | A free one-year AAN membership with purchase |
| 2025 mandate | Not mentioned on the Arizona pages we checked |
| Vendor transition / SB 1479 | Not mentioned |
The fair credit: 140 questions for $11.95 is the cheapest credible question bank in the niche, the test is keyed to the correct (2025) manual edition, and a published 30-day refund is more consumer-friendly than several larger competitors offer. If you already know the material and just want volume reps, it’s a rational $11.95.
The fair concerns: the course’s actual format is unpublished, so you cannot know how you’ll be taught before you pay. And AAN’s silence on the exam timeline is doubly notable because AAN also sells application-related services. A seller adjacent to the commissioning process should know that Arizona has required an exam for every new commission and renewal since July 1, 2025, that the exam now runs on Pearson VUE, and that SB 1479 added a thumbprint rule effective September 12, 2026, now part of the current manual. As of September 30, 2026, none of that appears on its Arizona course pages. None of it used to change the exam’s content. The vendor change affects how you register, and SB 1479 now sits in the manual the exam draws from, so the gap matters more than it did.
Notary.net: the 2.5-hour video
Notary.net’s Arizona offering is a $25 streaming video course, about 2.5 hours long, with 12 months of access and a completion certificate. Its site shows a 5.0 rating, drawn from its own storefront, so take a platform’s self-reported average for what it’s worth.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Course | $25, ~2.5-hour streaming video |
| Access | 12 months |
| Certificate | Yes, a *course completion* certificate |
| Practice tests | None published |
| 2025 mandate | Not mentioned |
| Vendor transition / SB 1479 | Not mentioned |
The fair credit: 2.5 hours of watchable video for $25 is a reasonable lecture pass over the material, 12 months of access is generous, and the price is honest for what it is.
The fair concerns: there are no published practice questions, which for an *exam* prep product is the bigger gap. You’d need to buy or find a question bank separately (AAN’s $11.95 test, or our free 24-question diagnostic). One clarity note matters more than it seems: the certificate you receive is a course-completion courtesy. It is not a state credential. In Arizona the only certificates that matter are your passing exam score and the commission the Secretary of State mails you. See what happens after you pass. And as with AAN, the pages carry no mention of the 2025-2026 rule changes.
One structural fact, stated neutrally: Notary.net is the affiliate link target of Open Exam Prep’s free site. The free questions funnel to this $25 course. That’s a normal business arrangement, but it means the “free” recommendation you encountered may be a paid placement in disguise. (Our review of Open Exam Prep.)
What the $25 tier doesn’t buy
Three things, specifically:
1. Currency. Neither provider mentions the exam mandate, the Pearson VUE transition, or SB 1479 as of September 30, 2026. You’d be studying material blind to a rule (the mandate) now 15 months old and two more from 2026.
2. A simulation. Neither offers a timed, exam-length practice test. The real exam’s discipline is 45 questions in 60 minutes at an 80% bar with the manual open. That is a skill you practice, not one you read about.
3. Diagnostics. AAN sells a question bank; Notary.net sells a lecture. Neither publishes anything that tells you *which parts of the manual* you’re weak in.
When $25 is the right call
If you learn well from video or raw reading, you’ll supplement with free questions anyway, and you take responsibility yourself for verifying registration logistics at azsos.gov. The $25 tier can absolutely get a disciplined person over an 80% bar that comes from a 66-page open-book manual. Plenty of people pass with less. The honest framing: you’re trading away currency, simulation, and structure, and keeping $44-$50.
If that trade sounds bad, the next step up is the NNA at $69 (reviewed here) or ours at the same launch price: 26 lessons, 295 verified questions, timed simulations, and dated coverage of the 2026 changes. The whole field, ranked on stated criteria: Best Arizona Notary Exam Prep, Compared.
Frequently asked questions
Are these two companies scams?
No. Both are established businesses with real products and published policies. The critique concerns currency and depth, not legitimacy.
Is AAN’s $11.95 test a good buy on its own?
If you want cheap question volume and you already know the manual, yes. You get 140 questions keyed to the 2025 edition, from a company with a 30-day refund. If you want the questions *with* teaching, sequencing, and exam-condition practice, no single $25 product on this page provides that.
Why do you keep saying ‘as of September 2026’?
Because provider pages change without notice. Everything here was verified on live pages on September 30, 2026. If a provider has updated since, welcome the improvement and check their pages directly.
Does the missing SB 1479 coverage affect the exam?
Both, now. The October 2026 manual, the edition the exam draws from, carries SB 1479: a right thumbprint is required in the journal for real-property documents and powers of attorney, with exceptions the manual flags on page 52. A question bank still keyed to the January 2025 edition won’t test that. We explain the rule free in SB 1479, Explained.
See what the extra $44 buys, or take the free diagnostic first →
*AzNotaryClass.com*
