Free OT CEUs 2026

25+ Free Occupational Therapy CEUs (Over 50 Hours Worth!)

We all know that occupational therapy CEU courses can sometimes come with a hefty price tag, leading to a dent in our budget just to keep up with our OT/OTA license renewals. This does not mean that those more expensive courses aren’t worth it, but with today’s economy, we can use all the help we can get to save money where we can.

Thankfully, there are multiple FREE occupational therapy CEUs available that you can use towards your state license and NBCOT renewals. 

We’ve rounded up these great options for free occupational therapy CEUs, current as of April 2026. We will update this article at least once a year, so be sure to let us know if you notice any changes when perusing these options. 

And as with any continuing education, be sure to check with your individual state’s licensing board to be sure they will accept these credits. I also want to note that these are all US-based CEU courses, but they may still be applicable if you are practicing in another country (again, be sure to check with your regulatory agency if using them for licensing purposes).

How many free occupational therapy CEU hours can you earn from this list?

Based on the providers I’ve listed here, you can earn approximately 50+ hours of free AOTA-approved continuing education, more than enough to meet most states’ 2-year renewal requirements and NBCOT’s requirements, without spending a cent! Pretty amazing and oh-so-helpful with the high costs of almost everything else. 

So without further ado, here are 25+ completely FREE OT CEU course options for you:

1. OT Potential’s 2 Free CEU Courses

Want to complete your OT CEUs on the go? OT Potential offers podcast, text, and video-based continuing education courses, all based around new research. 

With your 2 free CEU courses and 5-day free trial, you’ll be able to earn CEUs certificates from an AOTA-approved provider. You’ll also get to check out OT Potential’s popular OT Handouts, Documentation Examples, Clinical Decision Support, Assessment Search, and OT Month Toolkit. No credit card required for the trial. 

If you choose to subscribe, you can choose between the  OT Potential $99/year membership or pay monthly, with $49 for the first month and $9 after that. Members then get access to the weekly live courses and the ability to make a profile on the OT Near Me Directory

If you decide to subscribe now, you can also get an additional 15% off the yearly membership using our OT Potential promo code MYOTSPOT. Using this discount code will make this high quality option one of the lowest cost OT CEU platforms at just ~$85/year! Please note that we are affiliates of OT Potential, and sales may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. We only recommend products we personally use and love.

Either way, you can take these 2 free AOTA-approved courses, one on sleep and one on AI and OT ethics, both worth 1 CEU/CPD/PDU:

Pediatric Sleep and OT with Amy Gore Hartman, PhD, OTR/L

The Ethics of AI as Therapists with Megan Cornish

OT Potential Free CEUs

2. The NBCOT Navigator

The NBCOT Navigator is a fantastic option for free quality continuing education. If you’re already certified through NBCOT as an OTR or COTA, you have free access to up to 36 units per renewal period, which they call competency assessment units.

NBCOT free ceus

The NBCOT Navigator includes case simulations, management challenges, practice quizzes, evidence-based research, an orthotic builder, an OT knowledge library and a physical agent modalities tool. They also have an app version  so you can even earn credits easily on your phone.

To learn more about the Navigator and to see if your state also accepts these CAUs for state licensing (most do), be sure to check out their platform here.

3. AOTA’s Free Webinars

AOTA has been offering free webinars in which you can earn up to 12 continuing education contact hours free, with each webinar equaling one contact hour.

aota free webinars

Just a few examples of these interesting free webinar topics include:

  • Compassion Fatigue and Caregiver Burnout: Working Together to Work Through
  • Supporting Students Interested in Private Practice: Academic/Practitioner Discussion
  • OT Practitioner to Business Owner: Entrepreneurship Insights – Q&A Series

4. Adaptive Mobility Service’s OT’s Role with Driving

I’m super excited to add this free course to our 2025 update. This is a fully online three hour CEU course created by certified driver rehabilitation specialist Susie Touchinsky, OTR/L, SCDCM, CDRS.

It is an introductory course covering OT’s role in driving rehabilitation. The course will help you learn to start the conversation about driving, no matter what OT setting you practice in. Susie’s goal is “for ALL occupational therapy professionals to feel empowered in their practice to address driving risk.”

If you find that you want to go further into driving rehab, she will help you to become a driving rehab specialist yourself and even start your own driving rehab business.

You can take the three hour course free here.

5. OccupationalTherapy.com’s One Free Course

OccupationalTherapy.com offers one free 1-hour course of your choice for new users. Just enter their code 1FREECOURSE at checkout.

occupationaltherapycom free ceu

If you enjoy their online platform and would like unlimited online courses after that, you can purchase an annual membership for $129. I am not affiliated with Occupationaltherapy.com but I did use the paid version for a year in 2022 and I felt that it provides a good value for the $129 price. OT.com satisfied all of my state licensing needs at a fair price, and they had courses relevant for all occupational therapy settings. 

6. Interactive Metronome’s Free CEU Courses

If you work in neuro rehab with adults or in pediatrics, Interactive Metronome offers multiple free AOTA-approved CEU courses based on using their tool in adult and pediatric rehab. At the time of publishing, they currently offer 15 free online courses related to the IM. 

Just a few of these AOTA-approved free course offerings include topics such as:

  • Timing, Rhythm & Brain Function: The Interactive Metronome Explained, 
  • Introduction to Interactive Metronome for Pediatric Applications
  • Using IM in the Schools
  • IM Interdisciplinary Fall Prevention Strategies
  • Overview of Adult Rehab with Interactive Metronome for Cognitive & Motor Skills

These courses will likely be of interest for OTs interested in cognitive-motor training and timing-based interventions.

Visit their website here to see their current free course offerings, as the library is updated periodically.

7. Saebo’s Free Online Continuing Ed Courses

Saebo offers multiple free online evidence-based continuing education courses, which are all approved by AOTA. These are great options if you’re working with neurological populations and/or hand therapy, since Saebo specializes in stroke rehab products related to the upper extremity.

  • Mixed Method Neurorehabilitation (1.25 CEU hours)
  • 5 Ways to Improve Motor Recovery After Stroke (1 hour)
  • Introduction to Electrotherapy: Learn the Basics of Electrical Stimulation (1.5 CEU hours)
  • Saebo Self-Study Certification: Get Certified to Fit the SaeboFlex and SaeboReach (8 CEU hours)
  • Introduction to Electrotherapy: Learn the Basics of Electrical Stimulation (1.5 CEU hours)
  • SaeboGlove: Grasping Functional Recovery (.5 CEU hours)
  • SaeboStretch: A Dynamic Resting Hand Splint for Neurophysiological Changes (.5 CEU hours)
  • SaeboFlex and SaeboReach: Improving Upper Extremity Motor Recovery (.5 CEU hours)
  • Fostering Patient Compliance While at Home (1 CEU hour)

As you can see above, there are so many options to choose from which will give you a huge chunk of free hours. The courses are all self-study and can be taken 24 hours a day.

8. OnlineCE.com’s One Free Course

Similar to OT.com above, OnlineCE.com also offers an introductory free 1-hour course of your choice from their collection of OT CEUs. To get the free course, you’ll click the “Try it Free” to register for your free course.

onlinece ot ceu

The course can also be done any time of day, and has a vast library of options. Some course topics include driver rehabilitation, upper extremity anatomy, ergonomics, pain management in OT, and hand therapy treatment activities.

9. Aspire OT’s Free AOTA-Approved Courses

Aspire OT is a platform created by two OT practitioners specifically for OTs and OTAs. They are currently offering two free AOTA-approved courses worth 1 contact hour each. The free courses are:

These free courses are great options for OTAs in particular, and the professional identity topics are useful for any OTP newer to the field. If you find you enjoy their platform, Aspire OT also offers a reasonably priced subscription model for access to their full library of AOTA-approved courses and monthly live webinars.

10. OT Mastery’s Vision Deficits and Occupation Course

Coming from a new continuing education provider, OT Mastery’s AOTA-approved course, Vision Deficits and Occupation, offers 1.25 hours of online continuing education.

The course objectives for this introductory course on low vision include: “Explain how major vision concerns impact a person’s function, identify the major visual impairments and eye conditions that OTs can provide treatment for, [and] describe the difference between vision rehabilitation and low vision treatment as part of occupational therapy.”

The course also offers visual system anatomy, prevalence of vision concerns and disorders, low vision evaluation and treatment as well as case studies along the way.

Bonus Courses (May Not Quality for State Licensing)

AbleNet University’s Free Courses

At the time of this post’s update, AbleNet’s courses are not AOTA-approved but are still really helpful for anyone interested in learning more about assistive technology (especially since these courses are all free!)

AbleNet is an assistive technology company that not only manufactures assistive tech for individuals with disabilities but also provides free live webinars as well as recorded webinars (available 24/7) through their AbleNet University or on their YouTube channel.

They currently offer over 250 hours of free assistive technology course content, with several of the courses taught by OTs. A few course examples include:

  • Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Understanding & Responding
  • Mounting Speech Generating Devices and Tablets to Wheelchairs
  • Choose Your Own Switch Adventure: Oh The Places You’ll Go!
  • The Importance of Multimodal Communication
  • Cultivate Calmness, Concentration and Coping Skills

Quick Tips for Tracking Your Free CEUs

When you’re taking CEUs from multiple sources, staying organized is key, especially since your state licensing board and/or NBCOT may ask you to produce these certificates at renewal or through a random audit.

Here are a few easy ways to stay on top of this:

  • Save your certificates immediately after completing each free course. Create a dedicated folder on your computer or cloud storage labeled “CEU Certificates [renewal year]” and drop each PDF in as you earn it.
  • Log your hours as you go. A simple spreadsheet with the course name, provider, date completed, hours earned, and AOTA approval number is all you need.
  • Check CE Broker (if your state uses it). Several providers on this list, including OT Potential, report directly to CE Broker, which means your hours may already be tracked automatically. I do still recommend saving all certificates even if the provider uses CE Broker.

Still Need More CEUs?

If you haven’t found some of these courses to be of interest to you and your setting, and you don’t want to drop $500 for a weekend course, I currently use and highly recommend Medbridge Continuing Education for very high quality and unlimited online OT continuing education courses in every setting, from pediatrics to adults.

While Medbridge is not free and does not currently offer any free CEUs, you can get a year of unlimited AOTA-approved CEUs and webinars that count towards live courses for just $299 with our promo code MYOTSPOT (the yearly price is normally $405/year). If you’re still on the fence or want to learn more, be sure to check out my in-depth Medbridge review here.

You can also check out our follow-up article to this one, The Best Cheap CEUs for Occupational Therapy, for more low-cost options to help you meet your OT CEU needs:

The Best Cheap CEUs for Occupational Therapy

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And there you have it! Please let us know if you’ve discovered any other great free occupational therapy CEUs. We’d love to add them to this list.

Happy learning!

This post was originally published on May 24, 2020 and last updated on April 13, 2026.

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19 comments

  • Michele May 27, 2020   Reply →

    This is such great information! I have used some of them, but you have some great little known ones as well!

    • Sarah Stromsdorfer, OTR/L May 27, 2020   Reply →

      I’m so glad the list has some new ones for you!

  • Tara May 28, 2020   Reply →

    Great options! I do want to point out that the Parkinson’s one, while awesome, does not earn any CEUs.

    • Sarah Stromsdorfer, OTR/L June 3, 2020   Reply →

      Thanks so much for letting me know! It’s been updated 🙂

  • RS June 16, 2020   Reply →

    I do not see AbleNet on AOTA’s list of approved CEU providers – do you know if the AbleNet webinars are NBCOT approved?

    • Sarah Stromsdorfer, OTR/L June 16, 2020   Reply →

      I’m not seeing that NBCOT has a public list of approved CEU providers, so I definitely recommend with each of these options if you aren’t sure to contact your state’s OT board as well as NBCOT to play it safe.

  • Sarina Ussach June 26, 2020   Reply →

    Hello, thanks for this great advice. I reached out to ABLENET and they are definitely NOT certified by AOTA. FYI

    • Sarah Stromsdorfer, OTR/L June 26, 2020   Reply →

      Thanks for letting us know! I would also recommend to anyone who needs additional CEUs for their state licenses to reach out to their state OT board as well if they are interested in these webinars, as they may be approved on a state by state basis. If your state doesn’t approve them, they’re definitely still helpful pediatric courses to consider, especially since they’re free!

  • Dora, COTA/L April 14, 2021   Reply →

    Thank you for this valuable list of options!

  • Kelly Moriarity August 4, 2021   Reply →

    I would like to thank you for this information and thank the individuals for feedback of which ones are not AOTA approved CEUs

  • Stephanie Thomas November 11, 2021   Reply →

    Check out Engage IL for more free courses.

    • Sarah Stromsdorfer, OTR/L November 19, 2021   Reply →

      Thanks so much for sharing!

  • Kari April 1, 2022   Reply →

    Lingraphica will be hosting a free webinar on interdisciplinary approaches to communication with patients with aphasia for AOTA credit on April 14th. They also have a free online course – https://www.aphasia.com/occupational-therapists/

    • Sarah Stromsdorfer, OTR/L April 6, 2022   Reply →

      Thank you for sharing this!

  • KellyTheCOTA December 27, 2022   Reply →

    Are these CEU webinars approved for Live hours or Home study?

    • Sarah Stromsdorfer, OTR/L January 22, 2023   Reply →

      Hi Kelly, these are all recorded (not live) options.

  • Rachel Litsey November 27, 2023   Reply →

    Thank you so much for putting together all of this helpful information! I believe OT Potential Podcast offers 2 free CEUs. https://otpotential.com/ceu-podcast-courses

    • Sarah Stromsdorfer, OTR/L November 30, 2023   Reply →

      Thanks so much for sharing these, Rachel! I will add them to the article as well.

  • Heidi Hoffman January 3, 2026   Reply →

    Salia Rehab offers many great free CEU courses that are all AOTA approved

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