I just bit the bullet and paid $50

it costs 50$ to renew?

yeah unless they give you coupon code, which suppose to make it free, this was for last year, so technically coupon code expired (we didn't get one for 2025) but if they were to provide.

I didn't get one either and then totally forgot about it.. Company paid for it in my case

I went back and forth with them as well on this renewal. This was the first time I've had to pay for renewing my cert in 10 years! They were only about 8 months late on publishing the recert test too.