CPA licensure requirements vary by state, but every U.S. jurisdiction builds its rules on the same four pillars: 150 semester hours of college education, a passing score on the Uniform CPA Examination, supervised professional experience, and an ethics component. The thresholds inside each pillar shift from one state board to the next, and those differences decide whether your transcript, your job, or your exam timing will actually qualify you. State boards of accountancy enforce the standards, with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) supplying the model rules and the national exam.
The Four Requirements Every State Shares
Before looking at where states diverge, it helps to see what they have in common. To get licensed anywhere in the United States, you need to:
- Complete college coursework (traditionally 150 semester hours) with a concentration in accounting and business.
- Pass all four sections of the Uniform CPA Exam within a rolling credit window.
- Document supervised professional experience under a licensed CPA.
- Satisfy an ethics requirement, usually by exam.
Where states differ is in the fine print: how many accounting hours, how many experience hours, whether attest work is required, which ethics exam counts, and how your license later renews. The sections below walk through each pillar and flag the variation you need to check against your own state board.
Education Requirements
The 150-Hour Rule
The baseline is 150 semester hours of coursework from an accredited institution, a figure drawn from the Uniform Accountancy Act (UAA) that most state boards use as their template. A typical bachelor’s degree covers only about 120 hours, so candidates usually pick up the remaining 30 through a master’s program, a dual major, or additional undergraduate courses. Most jurisdictions let you sit for the exam once you’ve reached 120 hours and earned your bachelor’s, but the license itself waits until the full 150 are on your transcript.
Within those 150 hours, boards commonly require 24 to 30 semester hours of upper-level accounting courses covering subjects like auditing, cost accounting, and taxation, plus roughly 24 hours of general business coursework in areas like business law, economics, and management. Regionally accredited degrees are universally accepted; programmatic accreditation from bodies like AACSB can affect how specific credits are evaluated.
The New 120-Hour Alternative
The updated UAA now offers a second route that drops the extra 30 hours. Under this alternative pathway, a candidate with a 120-hour bachelor’s degree in accounting can qualify for a license by passing the CPA exam and completing two years of professional experience in place of the additional coursework. Because the UAA is a model law, each state must pass its own legislation to adopt it, and implementation timelines vary. Check whether your state has moved on it before planning around the shorter path.
Foreign-Educated Candidates
If your degree is from a university outside the United States, your credentials have to be evaluated before you apply. NASBA runs this through its International Evaluation Services (NIES). You’ll need official transcripts sent directly from your institution in a sealed envelope, a copy of your passport, and certified English translations of anything not already in English. Translations must come from an American Translators Association member, the university itself, or the issuing country’s ministry of education. NIES may also request syllabi for your accounting and business courses. All materials must arrive within 90 days of your application, or the evaluation is denied and the fee is forfeited.
The CPA Exam
Structure and Discipline Choice
The Uniform CPA Examination has four sections: three Core sections every candidate takes and one Discipline section you choose. The Core sections are Auditing and Attestation (AUD), Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR), and Taxation and Regulation (REG). Each runs four hours. For the Discipline, you pick one of three:
- Business Analysis and Reporting (BAR), focused on data analytics, financial planning, and management accounting.
- Information Systems and Controls (ISC), covering IT governance, cybersecurity, and system controls.
- Tax Compliance and Planning (TCP), concentrating on individual and entity tax strategy and compliance.
This format took effect in 2024, replacing the previous four-section exam.
Scoring and the 30-Month Credit Window
Each section is scored from 0 to 99, and you need at least a 75 to pass. You don’t have to take all four at once, but you do have to pass all four within a rolling 30-month window that starts the day you pass your first section. If time runs out before you clear the rest, your earliest passed section expires and you’ll have to retake it. The window was 18 months for many years and expanded to 30 months for credits earned beginning January 2024.
The exam uses continuous testing, so you can schedule a section at a Prometric center on nearly any day of the year and retake a failed section as soon as the score is released.
What the Exam Costs
Costs split in two: an application fee paid to your state board, and an examination fee paid per section. Application fees generally run $96 to $150. The per-section examination fee is $262.64, so all four sections come to roughly $1,050. Add the application fee and most candidates spend $1,150 to $1,650 to sit for the full exam, before study materials. Candidates testing in Guam or at international centers pay additional administration fees.
Work Experience
Passing the exam doesn’t produce a license on its own. Every jurisdiction requires supervised professional experience, and this is where state-to-state variation gets sharpest. Most boards require one to two years of full-time work in accounting, auditing, tax, or advisory services. What counts as “one year” in hours differs: some boards set it at 1,600 hours, others at 2,000 or 2,080. A few states require the work to be completed within a fixed window, often three to five years.
The work must be supervised by a CPA holding an active license in good standing. Some jurisdictions treat public accounting, corporate accounting, and government work as equivalent. Others are more restrictive, particularly around attest experience. A handful of states require a minimum number of hours specifically in attest work such as audits and reviews, which means candidates in those states need to plan their early career around getting that exposure. Your supervising CPA completes a verification form documenting your duties and hours, which goes into your license application.
Ethics
Many jurisdictions require you to pass an ethics exam or complete an ethics course before the license is issued. The AICPA’s Professional Ethics Exam is the most commonly accepted option, covering the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and the legal duties CPAs owe to clients, employers, and the public. Some states have their own ethics assessments or require a state-specific course, either instead of or in addition to the AICPA exam. Check your state board’s requirements early; the ethics piece is the one most often left until the last minute.
Applying for the License
Once you’ve met the education, exam, experience, and ethics requirements, you assemble a documentation package for your state board. At minimum, you’ll submit:
- Official transcripts sent directly from every college you attended. Most boards reject transcripts delivered by the candidate.
- An experience verification form signed by your supervising CPA.
- Government-issued identification, usually a driver’s license or passport.
- Your Social Security number for the background check.
The background check covers criminal history and any prior disciplinary actions from other licensing boards. Disclose any legal or professional issues; boards treat omissions as seriously as the underlying conduct, and false information can result in a permanent bar from licensure.
Most candidates submit through NASBA’s online CPA Portal, which consolidates exam history, application status, and payments. Initial license fees vary by state, with most falling between $50 and roughly $400. Boards typically take several weeks to verify everything and issue a decision. Once approved, your information appears in CPAverify, NASBA’s public database for confirming a CPA’s license status.
Practicing in Another State
Under the mobility framework most states have adopted, a CPA whose individual credentials meet the UAA standards can practice temporarily in another state without obtaining a separate license there. The updated UAA shifted this from a state-based reciprocity question to an individual-based practice privilege, so your own education, exam, and experience credentials control whether you can cross a state line to work.
If you need a permanent license in a second state rather than temporary privileges, you’ll go through reciprocal licensing. NASBA’s CredentialNet service provides an Individual Substantial Equivalency evaluation that assesses whether your qualifications meet the receiving state’s standards; NASBA sends the results directly to the new state’s board. Not every state accepts CredentialNet documentation, so confirm the process with the target state’s board before you start.
Keeping the License Active
Continuing Professional Education
A CPA license has to be maintained. Every jurisdiction requires continuing professional education (CPE). The most common standard is 40 hours per year or 80 hours over a two-year renewal period, though the exact numbers and cycle length vary. Most states also require a dedicated ethics component within each renewal period, typically two to four hours of board-approved ethics coursework.
Subject matter matters too. Boards classify acceptable topics into categories like accounting and auditing, technical business subjects, ethics, and behavioral subjects, and some cap the hours you can earn in the softer categories. Many states accept programs listed in NASBA’s National Registry of CPE Sponsors, though some impose additional approval rules for self-study or ethics-specific courses.
Renewal Cycles and Late Fees
Renewal schedules run on annual, biennial, or triennial cycles depending on the state. Renewal fees range from roughly $50 to $340. Missing the deadline triggers late fees of $55 to $500 on top of the base amount, and some states use graduated penalties that climb the longer you wait. Practicing on an expired license carries its own legal consequences separate from the late fees.
What Can Cost You the License
State boards have broad authority to suspend or revoke a CPA license for professional misconduct. Grounds include conviction of a felony, willful failure to file your own tax returns, filing a fraudulent return, or helping a client file one. Disciplinary action by another state’s board or a professional organization can also trigger proceedings. Boards investigate complaints actively, and disciplinary records are often publicly accessible through CPAverify and similar databases, so the reputational effect outlasts any suspension period.