You learn Xactimate through Verisk's own training — in-person classroom sessions across North America, live virtual classes, self-paced online courses, workbooks and a video library — or through trainers who hold Verisk's certified-trainer credential.
The third route is self-study: the self-paced online library comes bundled with an annual subscription.
This page maps every route: the formats, how long each takes, what each costs, and how the training differs by trade.
Official Verisk training
Verisk, the company that publishes Xactimate, offers training directly: in-person classroom sessions at locations across North America, live virtual classroom sessions with morning, afternoon and evening options, self-paced online courses, workbooks, and a Construction Basics and Estimation video library.
The self-paced option may already be paid for: an annual Xactimate subscription includes unlimited access to Verisk's self-paced online training library, which holds over 100 hours of content.
For an estimator who already has access through that subscription, the library is the natural first stop — no separate purchase, no travel and no calendar beyond your own.
For the certification track, Verisk publishes its own prep materials: the Xactimate Fundamentals and Proficiency eLearning course in Xactware Classroom, training classes, the Xactimate Training Workbook (plus a Mastery workbook for Level 3), and a two-hour, one-on-one online prep course with a Verisk certified trainer.
The certification exams are a separate purchase from the training itself.
One caution on ordering: training teaches the tool, and the restoration trade knowledge behind the line items keeps developing long after any class ends.
If you are still weighing whether the skill belongs in your career, the restoration estimator career guide covers the role the training supports.
Third-party certified trainers
Alongside its own classes, Verisk maintains a trainer credential: the Xactimate Certified Trainer (XCT).
Verisk's published path to earning it has four parts: pass the Xactimate Level 3 certification exam, complete a 3-day Train-the-Trainer class, pass the trainer exam, and then be observed teaching by Verisk.
XCT status lasts 2 years, and Verisk lists current holders in its Xactimate Trainer Certification Directory.
The directory is the practical tool for a buyer of training.
When a class, a consultant or a course advertisement says "certified trainer," check the trainer's name against Verisk's directory before you pay — Verisk publishes the list so companies can locate a certified trainer working in their region.
If your company wants instructor-led training without sending estimators to a public session, the directory is still the starting point: pull the list, shortlist trainers, and ask each one what formats they deliver.
Verisk also recognizes a separate lane, Affiliate Trainers (XATs): an affiliate trains their own company's staff without the observation step, and an affiliate is not a Verisk-certified trainer.
For a restoration company, that lane is the in-house option: an employee who qualifies as an affiliate can train the rest of the estimating desk directly, without Verisk's observation step and without the certified-trainer listing.
Online vs in-person
Verisk's published formats split into two groups: the ones you attend, and the ones you work through on your own schedule.
The attend group is in-person classroom sessions, held throughout the year at locations across North America, and live virtual classroom sessions with morning, afternoon and evening options.
The self-study group is the subscription-included online library with over 100 hours of content, plus workbooks and the Construction Basics and Estimation video library.
Live virtual sessions put the instructor online rather than in the room, which matters when training has to fit around an on-call rotation or the season's storm workload.
The trade-offs come down to three things: schedule, travel and feedback.
Live formats put an instructor in the room — real or virtual — to answer questions while the habits are forming.
Self-paced formats put you in control of the calendar, and unlimited access means the library stays available after the first pass for the lessons you need again.
In-person is the only format that adds travel: getting to a session city costs its own time.
For an employer, the subscription changes the math: an annual Xactimate subscription already includes the self-paced library, so check with Verisk how many users a subscription covers before planning training for a whole estimating desk around it.
Live sessions are the add-on for scheduled, instructor-led time, whether that is a virtual seat or a classroom.
How long it takes
The Verisk training pages our research reviewed do not publish a single course length for learning Xactimate, so the honest answer depends on the route you pick.
The self-paced library is the open-ended option: over 100 hours of content exists, and you take the lessons that match the estimating work in front of you.
Live virtual and in-person sessions run on Verisk's published schedule; our research did not capture per-class day counts, so check the current class list for the length of the session you book.
The shortest published unit our research captured is prep: Verisk lists a two-hour, one-on-one online prep course with a certified trainer.
On the trainer track, the Train-the-Trainer class is 3 days.
Two other clocks sit near training time but are not training time.
Certification exams must be taken within 12 months of purchase, and a certification stays valid for 2 years — those are the certification program's windows, not a statement about how long it takes to learn the tool.
The last stretch is practice — the part no class can do for you.
An estimator who finishes a class still meets the real education on the first live estimates — the mitigation file that resists a clean scope, the supplement after walls open up — and that stretch takes as long as the job flow takes.
What it costs
The self-paced library is the price-floor route because it can cost nothing extra: an annual Xactimate subscription includes unlimited access to the training library, so a company or estimator already paying for the software gets the over 100 hours of content with it.
Verisk prices its certification exams publicly: Levels 1, 2 and 3 cost USD 120 each on Verisk's store as of October 2026.
The store also lists a Construction Basics and Estimation Certification at the same USD 120.
The three level exams must each be taken within 12 months of purchase, and each certification is valid for 2 years.
The other published price is support, which you meet while learning: Verisk charges $20 per phone support call, and live chat through its eService Center is free.
What our research did not capture with prices: classroom tuition, live virtual session pricing, and the individual prep items — the eLearning course, the workbooks and the one-on-one prep.
Treat class prices as a check-before-you-book item on Verisk's own training pages rather than a number carried from memory or from a third-party blog.
On free routes: our research did not confirm from Verisk whether a free trial of the software is currently offered.
Before you plan around a free copy of the software, check Verisk's own store and training pages for what is currently offered.
Confirm prices with Verisk before you book
Training for restoration vs roofing vs adjusters
Our research did not find a trade-specific track in Verisk's published training; check Verisk's current class list rather than assuming one exists or does not.
The formats and certification levels our research captured are organized around the software, with no restoration, roofing or adjuster label on them.
Where the catalog leans at all, it leans construction: the video library is named Construction Basics and Estimation, and the store sells a Construction Basics and Estimation Certification alongside the three levels.
What clearly differs by trade is the estimate content.
A restoration estimator prices extraction, drying, demolition and rebuild lines on water, fire and mold losses; a roofer prices roofing work; an adjuster reviews estimates on the insurer's side of the claim.
That content knowledge comes from the trade and the job.
For a restoration estimator, the takeaway from what our research captured is that the training decision comes down to format and depth.
Pick the Verisk format that fits your calendar and budget, then build the restoration-specific scope knowledge on live losses, alongside the crew leads who document the work and the project managers who run it.
Project managers work from these same estimates day to day, and the restoration project manager career guide covers that side of the desk.
Career information, not licensing, legal, insurance, health, safety or tax advice. Confirm current training schedules, prices and certification terms with Verisk before you book a class, buy a subscription or schedule an exam.