How to Read RYT 200 and YTT 200 and Choose the Right Yoga Course

This page explains the labels and how to test them. Whether to teach at all, and what the work is like, is covered in how to become a yoga teacher in India. Yoga Alliance's facts below were read on its own pages on 1 November 2026, and where a page carries an older date, this article gives it. They are Yoga Alliance's terms for its own credentials and nobody else's.

What is the difference between RYT 200 and YTT 200?

YTT stands for yoga teacher training, the course you attend; any school can use the letters. RYT means Registered Yoga Teacher, a credential Yoga Alliance grants to a person. Its standards say a teacher can obtain RYT 200 after completing a 200-hour training registered with Yoga Alliance, and that same document lists no teaching requirement for that level. So YTT 200 describes what a school runs, RYS 200 describes the school's standing with Yoga Alliance, and RYT 200 describes you, after you apply.

Yoga Alliance's standards say it offers six teacher credentials: RYT 200, RYT 500, E-RYT 200, E-RYT 500, RCYT and RPYT. YTT and CYT are not on that list. That does not make a YTT or CYT certificate worthless, since a school can teach well without registering. It only means those letters cannot be checked with Yoga Alliance, and you should ask the school what stands behind them. If you are weighing the Indian exam instead, read how Yoga Alliance and the YCB differ.

How do you check a school's claim on the registry?

Open Yoga Alliance's Find a Yoga School page and search for the school under its registered name, choosing RYS 200 as the designation. The standards document gives the directory as the first place to check if you are unsure about a training. Ask the school for its exact registered name in writing, because the brand on its website may differ. If you cannot find the listing, write to the school and to Yoga Alliance's help centre, and treat the claim as unconfirmed until one of them shows you.

A badge on a website proves little by itself, since images are easy to copy. What you want is a match between three things: the name in the directory, the name on the school's invoice and the name on its sample certificate. A related trap is a teacher's own listing. Yoga Alliance also runs a Find a Yoga Teacher search by designation, and a lead trainer's RYT or E-RYT tells you about that person, not about whether the school's course leads to RYT 200 for you.

Read the certificate before you pay

Yoga Alliance's certificate requirements page, last updated on 11 May 2021, lists what proof of completion must show: the school's name as registered, in English characters; the handwritten signature of an authorised signatory who is not the trainee; the track, such as 200-hour; the completion date; and your legal name. It says each school submits a sample certificate, which Yoga Alliance compares against yours. Ask to see a blank copy before you pay, and confirm your name will match your identity documents.

One line matters for chains and travelling trainings. The page says a certificate may also carry the name of an additional location, but one that does not show the school's registered name will not be recognised as valid proof. So if a school runs batches in Rishikesh, Goa and online under different names, ask which registered name will be printed. How the format itself changes your training is weighed in online teacher training and a Rishikesh course.

Can two shorter courses add up to RYT 200?

No: Yoga Alliance's standards say multiple trainings cannot be combined to meet the 200-hour requirement. A 100-hour course here and another 100 hours there will not qualify, even at listed schools. Check this before you buy a modular offer, and ask whether all 200 hours sit under one RYS 200 registration. Combining is allowed one level up: RYT 500 can come from one 500-hour training or from a 200-hour training plus 300 hours at a school registered as RYS 300, at the same school or a different one.

What changes between RYT 200 and RYT 500?

RYT 500 asks for 300 more training hours and at least 100 hours of teaching since your training, while RYT 200 asks for no teaching hours. E-RYT 200 is a separate step that adds experience rather than training: 1,000 teaching hours and two years since your RYS 200 course. A 400-hour course sits outside this ladder, so do not assume it maps to a Yoga Alliance level. Which length of course is right for you is set out in 200 versus 400 hour training, and that page answers the question better than a label can.

The cost of the credential on top of the course

Yoga Alliance lists a one-time application fee of $50 and annual membership dues of $65, which its standards total as $115 for the first year. Its standards also require members to keep the ethical commitment and complete continuing education. Tuition is separate: its training options page says schools set their own, from $1,500 to more than $5,000 depending on length, location and format. Ask whether the school's figure includes the application, because the two are often confused. If your teaching income will be small at first, count the yearly dues as a real cost.

NNWA under the same test, limits included

In these terms, NNWA's 200-hour course is a YTT. Its page describes it as online and YCB-aligned, taught in live and recorded classes in English and Hindi, and it leads to two NNWA skill-enhancement certificates. NNWA's course pages list no Yoga Alliance school registration, so you should not plan on applying for RYT 200 with this certificate. The Medhavi Skills University award that covers NNWA's four flagship programmes does not cover its yoga courses.

The YCB exam is also separate from this course: NNWA's page says aligned, and you would sit the board's assessment yourself if you want that certificate. The 400-hour course's page lists YCB and Indian Yoga Association certification through Shyambhai Yoga, so ask the admissions team how that works before paying. None of these courses is a degree, and none gives the right to treat disease. If an employer has asked you for RYT 200, a Registered Yoga School is the better buy, and that may well mean not NNWA.

The reader each label suits

Pursuing RYT 200 suits someone with a clear reason: a foreign studio's job post, a retreat that asks for it, or international clients who search Yoga Alliance's directory. A plain YTT suits someone who wants to learn to teach, plans to work in India with people who will judge a trial class, or who wants a foundation before deciding. It also suits teachers who may later sit the YCB exam, since the board asks for no particular course.

Specialist labels suit teachers who already hold a base credential. Yoga Alliance's RPYT, for example, requires an RYT plus an 85-hour prenatal training and 30 teaching hours, and prenatal yoga teacher training in India covers that choice. For a picture of how a qualified teacher builds a wider practice around one of these certificates, read the yoga teacher case study. Do not collect letters for their own sake: each adds cost, and some add yearly dues.

Readers who should look elsewhere

Look elsewhere if you need a government or institutional yoga post, because those notices often ask for a degree or a one-year diploma, and a 200-hour course of any label may fall short. Look elsewhere if you want to work therapeutically with medical conditions: neither YTT nor RYT covers that, and yoga therapy and teacher training lead to different places. And if your students mainly ask you about food, these labels say nothing about nutrition, so do not give diet plans on the strength of them.

A check you can run on any school today

What should you do next?

Find out whether anyone you want to work for asks for RYT 200. If they do, shortlist schools that appear on the directory and run the check above. If nobody does, choose on who teaches you and how much observed teaching you get, using the checks for comparing a course syllabus side by side, which work for yoga too. If you want to look at NNWA's course as that plain YTT, you can read its page and raise questions through the admissions page.

Do not buy anything yet if a school will not give you its registered name, or if you have not yet taught a single person. Teaching two friends for a few weeks will show you whether you enjoy it, and that is cheaper than any fee on this page. Do not buy yet either if the only reason you want RYT 200 is the letters. A trial class is what most studios will judge you on, and no credential will replace it.

Sources and further reading

Yoga Alliance. Standards for Registered Yoga Teachers. Lists the six teacher credentials, the training and teaching requirements for each, first-year costs and member obligations.

Yoga Alliance. Explore Training Options. Sets out the steps to a credential, the school tuition range and the application and membership fees.

Yoga Alliance. Certificate Requirements for RYT Registration. Last updated 11 May 2021, it lists what a certificate must show and how sample certificates are compared.

Yoga Alliance. Find a Yoga School. The school directory, searchable by designation including RYS 200.

Yoga Alliance. Find a Yoga Teacher. The teacher directory, searchable by designation including RYT 200 and E-RYT 200.

Yoga Certification Board, Ministry of Ayush. Frequently Asked Questions. States that the board runs no course and sets no minimum qualification for its exam.

Yoga Certification Board, Ministry of Ayush. Guideline for Yoga Professionals. An undated guideline that sets the Level 1 assessment and the 70 per cent pass mark in each part.