Alberta PNP points calculator

How many points do you need for the Alberta PNP?

None to submit. AAIP's own instructions say: “You do not need to meet a minimum point score to submit a Worker EOI.” The one floor is language. You need at least CLB 4 in English or NCLC 4 in French in all four abilities, and below that a Worker EOI cannot be submitted at all.

What happens after you submit is a separate question. AAIP invites candidates “based on a combination of points score, Alberta labour market needs, application volumes and available AAIP nominations”, and says plainly that the grid “is not the only consideration”. Draws are held by stream or pathway, and some are held for occupations or sectors in demand regardless of score. For 2026 AAIP prioritizes draws and nominations for occupations in key sectors such as health care, technology, construction, manufacturing, aviation and agriculture, and for Rural Renewal designated communities, and says the list is not exhaustive.

Each draw publishes the minimum score of the candidates it invited. That figure belongs to the draw and its stream, so it can differ from one draw to the next; AAIP's draw table (opens in a new tab) lists them.

AAIP points grid: the twelve criteria

Two groups make up the grid. Human capital is worth 69 and economic factors 31. Six sections carry a printed total, and two economic criteria, the job's location and a regulated occupation, are printed without a section. Twelve criteria in all:

Education

Only your highest completed credential scores, whether you earned it in Canada or abroad. A credential from outside Canada is entered from your Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) report, issued by an organization IRCC designates.

Location points also go to the highest credential only: 10 if you completed it in Alberta, 6 in another province or territory. The institution has to be on Canada's Designated Institutions List. A highest credential from outside Canada earns no location points, even if you also hold a lower Canadian one, and secondary school earns no education points wherever you finished it.

One rule catches people out. A Canadian post-graduate program that required a degree for entry is claimed at the level of that degree, bachelor's, master's or doctorate, and location points can be added. A master's degree from a university in Ontario scores 10 plus 6, so 16 of the section's 22.

Language

Points follow the lowest of your four abilities (listening, reading, writing and speaking) on the test you took. AAIP scores English and French separately and awards the higher of the two, so a strong French result never lowers an English one.

French tops out lower than English: 8 at NCLC 6 or higher, against 10 for CLB 6 or higher. The grid gives no reason. If both languages are at level 4 or higher you also get 3 for bilingual ability, so the section's 13 is reached only with English at CLB 6 or higher and French at NCLC 4 or higher.

Take someone at level 5 in both languages: English gives 8, French 5, the higher is 8, and bilingual adds 3, for 11 of 13. To convert a test result to CLB or NCLC, the grid points to IRCC's charts; the CLB calculator does that conversion for each test.

Work experience

Total experience counts everything you have worked, in Canada and abroad, and its lowest row is “Less than 6 months”. The grid has no row for no work experience; its lowest row is less than 6 months, 3 points.

Canadian experience is scored again on its own. Six months or more in Alberta earns 10, six months or more in another province or territory 6. AAIP scores both and awards the higher, so a year in each counts as Alberta's 10, not 16. Under six months in Canada matches neither row.

The experience must have been full time and paid. It can come from more than one occupation and from any time; AAIP sets no time limit. Work in Canada must have been authorized by IRCC. Someone with 12 months or more in total, including at least six months in Ontario and less in Alberta, scores 11 plus 6, so 17 of 21.

Age and family in Alberta

Age is scored in four bands, starting at 18 to 20.

Family is worth 8 or nothing. The relative must live in Alberta, be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, be over 18, and be your parent, child or sibling, by birth or adoption. In-laws do not count. AAIP still prints a wider list (grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews), but it applies only to a Worker EOI submitted on or before 29 January 2025.

A 40-year-old whose sister is a permanent resident living in Alberta scores 4 for age and 8 for family.

Alberta job offer, location and regulated occupation

The economic factors turn on a job offer. AAIP's definition: “To claim points, the Alberta job offer must be permanent and non-seasonal full-time employment, not a combination of occupations or seasonal, part-time or casual employment.” Such an offer is worth 10. Each economic criterion is scored on that offer, so this calculator scores them only once you tick one.

A further 6 comes from one of three rows, and only one, because the rows do not add: an endorsement letter from a Rural Renewal designated community; a tourism and hospitality offer from an employer that belongs to a required sector association; or a law enforcement offer from a member of the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police. An endorsement letter has to be in hand when you submit. Alberta's Rural Renewal page says the letter sets out “details of the bona fide job offer” for someone “offered a full-time job in a Designated Community”, which is why the calculator offers that row only with a job offer ticked.

Where the job is adds 5, unless it sits in the Calgary or Edmonton Census Metropolitan Area, which score 0. Statistics Canada's lists say which places those areas include.

A regulated occupation adds 10, with Alberta's certification or licence. In a regulated trade that means a valid Alberta Qualification Certificate or a trade certificate recognized by Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training; a profession needs a provisional or full licence from its regulator. If certification is not compulsory in your trade and you hold no trade certificate, there are no points. A permanent full-time offer outside the two Census Metropolitan Areas, with none of the extras, scores 10 plus 5, so 15.

Why some calculators show a different points grid

Some calculators that rank for this search score the federal Skilled Worker grid under Alberta's name. That grid belongs to IRCC, not Alberta. It is an eligibility test for a federal program, built on six factors (education, official languages, experience, age, arranged employment and adaptability), with a pass mark the federal minister sets.

Alberta's Worker EOI grid is a different instrument. It has twelve criteria of its own, scores out of 100 and has no pass mark; the score ranks a Worker EOI among other candidates'. A result from the federal grid says nothing about where you stand with AAIP, and the reverse holds too.

Older pages add a second source of confusion: they still call the program the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP). AAIP took its current name on 16 February 2022. Whatever a page calls it, the grid that scores a Worker EOI is the one dated 28 September 2026, linked from every row of the calculator above.

A worked example

A 29-year-old holds a bachelor's degree from outside Canada, assessed by an ECA. Her lowest English ability is CLB 7, and she has no French test. She has worked full time for more than a year, 14 of those months in Alberta, and has a permanent full-time job offer in Alberta, outside the Calgary and Edmonton Census Metropolitan Areas. The job is not regulated, and she has no family in Alberta.

What 58 tells her is her place among Worker EOIs; it does not tell her whether an invitation will come. That depends on which draws AAIP holds and for whom, and an invitation still requires her to meet every criterion of the stream it is for.

Your Worker EOI score and your CRS score are different numbers

One grid scores every Worker EOI, including those for the Alberta Express Entry Stream. Since 30 September 2024 a Worker EOI is how AAIP invites to all of its worker streams: the Alberta Opportunity Stream, the Alberta Express Entry Stream with its pathways, the Rural Renewal Stream and the Tourism and Hospitality Stream.

The Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) is something else. It is the federal ranking of Express Entry profiles, out of 1,200, and the CRS score calculator works it out. The CRS scores a provincial nomination at 600 points; that figure is the CRS's own, and nothing converts a Worker EOI score into a CRS score or the reverse.

Federal draws are on the Express Entry draws page. British Columbia runs a points grid of its own, scored on the BC PNP points calculator; its numbers do not compare with Alberta's either.

What the grid does not decide

Some questions the grid leaves open, and the calculator handles each the same way: it scores only what is printed.

• No work experience. There is no row for it. The calculator's lowest option is the grid's lowest row, less than 6 months, 3 points.
• Under 18. The age rows start at 18 to 20. The grid says nothing about younger candidates, and neither does this page.
• Canadian work under six months. Both Canadian rows say six months or more, so less matches no row and scores nothing.
• Location of a credential from outside Canada. The grid prints no row for it. AAIP's answers say a highest credential from outside Canada earns no location points, so the calculator scores it 0.
• The date age is counted. No date is given on the grid.

Two things AAIP does say matter as much as any row. It checks claimed points twice, once when it invites a candidate and again when it assesses the application, and “any discrepancies in claimed points may result in cancellation of an invitation or decline of an application”. And a score is not eligibility: “Regardless of how points are obtained, candidates must also meet all criteria for the stream or pathway of invitation.”

Which edition these values come from

Every row and maximum of Alberta's grid on this page comes from AAIP's “Worker Expression of Interest (EOI) Points Grid”, the edition whose footer is dated 28 September 2026, published as a PDF on alberta.ca.

Grid

Worker Expression of Interest (EOI) Points Grid

Footer date

28 September 2026

File

https://www.alberta.ca/system/files/im-worker-stream-expression-of-interest-points-grid.pdf (opens in a new tab)

Checked

Checked against the grid on 14 October 2026

Alberta keeps the grid at one fixed address and replaces the file there when it changes. So this page compares that file's fingerprint every week, and any change to the file changes its fingerprint.

Some pages still cite an earlier edition. Its rows cannot be compared with this one from what Alberta publishes now, so this page states the current edition only and does not say what moved.