API 570 Compliance for Inspection Service Providers
Contractors inspecting in-service metallic and fibreglass-reinforced plastic process piping and its associated pressure-relieving devices. It excludes specialty equipment — instrumentation, exchanger tubes and control valves. Personnel are qualified under employer-based certification, so a contracted Level III can sign the written practice and administer examinations for the firm.
Piping retired from service and abandoned in place falls outside the code; piping that is temporarily out of service but mothballed stays inside it. Any firm supplying thickness readings, corrosion-under-insulation surveys, injection-point inspection or weld examination on process piping is working to this code. API 570 is built around circuits, not vessels, and that changes what a service provider must deliver. Piping is classified by consequence of failure, condition monitoring locations are the unit of record, and the code singles out injection points, dead legs, small-bore piping, corrosion under insulation and soil-to-air interfaces as the places programmes fail. The code is explicitly written for outsourcing: it states it is intended for use by organizations that maintain or have access to an authorized inspection agency, a repair organization, and technically qualified piping engineers, inspectors and examiners, all as defined in its definitions section. The Authorized Piping Inspector must hold API 570 certification. The examiner performing the NDE need not, and normally does not.
Source: API 570 Body of Knowledge for the February, June and October 2026 exams, api.org — verified for the reference publication list (API 570; API RP 571, 574, 576, 577 and 578; ASME Section V, Section IX, B16.5, B31.3 and PCC-2), for the ASME Section V Articles in scope (Article 1 general requirements including owner/user and subcontractor responsibilities, calibration, the definitions of inspection and examination and record keeping; Article 2 radiographic; Article 6 liquid penetrant with mandatory appendices II and III; Article 7 magnetic particle, yoke and prod only; Article 9 visual; Article 10 leak testing with mandatory appendix I; Article 23 SE-797 ultrasonic thickness), and for the ASME PCC-2 articles examined. API 570 4th edition publisher's preview, api.org — verified for the scope statement, the exclusion of instrumentation, exchanger tubes and control valves, the treatment of abandoned versus mothballed piping, and the statement that the code is intended for organizations that maintain or have access to an authorized inspection agency, a repair organization, and technically qualified piping engineers, inspectors and examiners as defined in Section 3. API Standard 570 announcement page confirms the 5th edition; the February 2024 date comes from reseller listings. API ICP Schedules & Fees for fees and 2026 exam windows. The class-based maximum thickness-measurement and external-visual intervals were not verified against the 5th edition text and are therefore described here without figures.
| Item | What applies | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Authority | American Petroleum Institute. API's Individual Certification Programs office certifies the Authorized Piping Inspector; the piping inspection programme is owned and enforced by the owner-user, and audited by the owner-user or by OSHA under process safety management | The body that issues, audits and can withdraw |
| Applies to | Contractors inspecting in-service metallic and fibreglass-reinforced plastic process piping and its associated pressure-relieving devices. | Whether this binds your firm at all |
| Personnel certification | Employer-based — the firm certifies its own, under a qualified Level III | Decides whether an outsourced Level III can sign for you |
| Renewal | No company certificate. The individual API 570 certificate runs three years, on the same ICP rules as API 510: at least 20% of time over the certification period performing or supervising inspection, 24 CPD hours per three-year cycle, and a 25-question open-book web quiz every six years. Published fees are $875 USD member and $1,125 non-member for initial certification, $745 and $855 for recertification, and $350 to reschedule. The 2026 API 570 exam windows are 6–27 February and 5–26 June 2026. The code itself is on API's own revision cycle; the 5th edition is current. | Diarise from the certificate date, not from memory |
| Methods in scope | UT, UT thickness, PAUT, TOFD, RT, MT | Each method needs its own procedure and qualified personnel |
| Industries | Refining, Petrochemical, Chemical manufacturing, Gas processing and LNG, Power generation | Where this regime shows up in contracts |
Who does API 570 apply to?
Contractors inspecting in-service metallic and fibreglass-reinforced plastic process piping and its associated pressure-relieving devices. It excludes specialty equipment — instrumentation, exchanger tubes and control valves. Piping retired from service and abandoned in place falls outside the code; piping that is temporarily out of service but mothballed stays inside it. Any firm supplying thickness readings, corrosion-under-insulation surveys, injection-point inspection or weld examination on process piping is working to this code.
Can an outsourced Level III sign for API 570 compliance?
Yes. API 570 accepts employer-based certification, which places the obligation on the employer and allows a contracted Level III to write and sign the written practice, approve procedures and administer examinations. The Level III must be qualified in each method they sign for, and the employer still owns the records.
What documents does a API 570 audit ask for?
Owner-user piping inspection programme with the piping circuit list and each circuit's class designation, Current API 570 certificate for each Authorized Piping Inspector, Isometric drawings with condition monitoring locations and thickness measurement locations permanently identified, Injection point, dead leg, small-bore piping and corrosion-under-insulation inspection registers, NDE written practice, Level III-approved method procedures and examiner certification records. Auditors open records before they open manuals, because a manual describes intent while records show practice. The most common failure is a documented system that does not match what the technicians actually do.
How often is API 570 renewed?
No company certificate. The individual API 570 certificate runs three years, on the same ICP rules as API 510: at least 20% of time over the certification period performing or supervising inspection, 24 CPD hours per three-year cycle, and a 25-question open-book web quiz every six years. Published fees are $875 USD member and $1,125 non-member for initial certification, $745 and $855 for recertification, and $350 to reschedule. The 2026 API 570 exam windows are 6–27 February and 5–26 June 2026. The code itself is on API's own revision cycle; the 5th edition is current. Firms that diarise renewal from the certificate date rather than from the last audit avoid the lapse that forces a full reapplication.
What are the most common API 570 findings?
Readings recorded against a line number rather than a permanent condition monitoring location identifier, so no corrosion rate can be trended, Injection points and dead legs not maintained on a separate register with their own shorter intervals, Corrosion-under-insulation inspection reported with no record of where insulation was actually removed, Class 1 piping inspected on a Class 2 interval because the circuit was never reclassified after a service change. These recur because they are records problems rather than capability problems — the work is being done correctly and the evidence is not being kept.
Which NDT methods does API 570 cover?
UT, UT thickness, PAUT, TOFD, RT, MT, PT, VT. Each method in scope needs its own approved procedure and personnel qualified in that specific method; a Level III qualified in ultrasonics cannot sign for radiography.
Personnel certification under API 570
The same split as API 510, with one distinctive feature. The Authorized Piping Inspector holds API's central, third-party API 570 certification, which no employer can issue. The examiner is certified by his employer under a written practice built on ASNT SNT-TC-1A, ANSI/ASNT CP-189 or ACCP, so an outsourced Level III can own the written practice, approve the procedures and certify the technicians. The distinctive feature is that the API 570 body of knowledge itself teaches the inspector ASME Section V Articles 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 10 and Article 23 SE-797 — the inspector is expected to audit your procedures, not merely receive your results. API's QUTE, QUSE, QUSE-PA and QUPA ultrasonic examiner qualifications are increasingly specified for piping corrosion mapping and weld phased array.
The audit sequence
- Piping circuits defined and each circuit assigned a class by consequence of failure; the class drives the maximum interval and the density of condition monitoring locations
- Contract scope written against the circuit list; the contractor's written practice, procedures and examiner records accepted by the owner-user before mobilisation
- Isometrics and CML/TML identification verified on site — the most common single source of data that cannot afterwards be trended
- Examination performed to procedure, with readings recorded against the permanent CML identifier rather than the line number
- Authorized Piping Inspector evaluates the data, computes short-term and long-term corrosion rates and sets the next interval
- Findings on injection points, dead legs, corrosion under insulation and soil-to-air interfaces reported separately, because these are the areas the code singles out and the areas audits target
Documents an auditor asks for
- Owner-user piping inspection programme with the piping circuit list and each circuit's class designation
- Current API 570 certificate for each Authorized Piping Inspector
- Isometric drawings with condition monitoring locations and thickness measurement locations permanently identified
- Injection point, dead leg, small-bore piping and corrosion-under-insulation inspection registers
- NDE written practice, Level III-approved method procedures and examiner certification records
- Thickness data history with both short-term and long-term corrosion rates calculated
- Inspection reports signed by the Authorized Piping Inspector
- Repair, alteration and rerating records including welding procedure specifications, procedure qualification records and pressure test records
- Insulation removal and reinstatement records supporting corrosion-under-insulation inspection
Findings firms get against API 570
- Readings recorded against a line number rather than a permanent condition monitoring location identifier, so no corrosion rate can be trended
- Injection points and dead legs not maintained on a separate register with their own shorter intervals
- Corrosion-under-insulation inspection reported with no record of where insulation was actually removed
- Class 1 piping inspected on a Class 2 interval because the circuit was never reclassified after a service change
- Ultrasonic procedure written for plate used on small-bore piping with no technique addressing curvature and wall thickness
- Examiner certified in ultrasonics generally with no documented qualification for the encoded or mapping technique actually used
- Only one corrosion rate calculated, so the governing rate between short-term and long-term is not identified
- Inspector certificate current but the programme still written to a superseded edition of API 570
Related: the API 570 overview, outsourced ASNT Level III cover, written practice development, NDT procedure development, a programme gap assessment, interim Level III cover.