Checked against primary sources 2026-08-24
What each license costs, from the rule that sets it
These are small numbers and they are published in rule rather than on a fee page, which is why they go stale in summaries. Read 24 August 2026.
On this page
Application fees
All fifteen entries in 16 TAC 73.80(a) land on five price points.
| Fee | Licenses at that fee |
|---|---|
| $110 | Electrical contractor · Electrical sign contractor · Residential appliance installation contractor |
| $95 | Apprentice training program registration |
| $45 | Master electrician · Master sign electrician |
| $30 | Journeyman electrician · Journeyman sign electrician · Journeyman lineman · Journeyman industrial electrician · Residential appliance installer |
| $20 | Residential wireman · Maintenance electrician · Electrical apprentice · Electrical sign apprentice |
Renewal costs the same. For every license type, the renewal fee in 16 TAC 73.80(b) is the same number as the application fee above, so long as the license expires on or after 1 February 2014. The rule still prints a set of figures five dollars higher for licenses that expired before that date, and that column is now dead text.
16 TAC 73.80(e) states that all fees are non-refundable. That includes an application the department rejects on eligibility, so get the eligibility question settled before you pay it.
Duplicate and revised licenses
16 TAC 73.80(d): twenty-five dollars for most licenses, twenty for the two apprentice licenses, the residential wireman and the maintenance electrician. The same twenty-five and twenty split covers a revised license, so a name change and a lost card cost the same.
The ninety dollar fee most people never meet
16 TAC 73.80(f) carries a ninety dollar fee, and it is the one figure on this page that changed in 2026.
Before 1 July 2026 it paid for a determination under 16 TAC 73.111, the provision on compliance with career and technology education program requirements for residential wiremen. The amendment adopted in the 26 June 2026 issue of the Texas Register, effective 1 July 2026, applies ninety dollars to the evaluation of a proposed Accelerated Journeyman Electrician Education Program.
It is a program fee rather than a licensee fee. If you are an individual applying for a license, you will not see it. If you run a training program and want it approved, you will.
Late renewal is a multiplier, not a flat fee
The late fee is set in 16 TAC 60.83 rather than in Chapter 73, and it is paid in place of the ordinary renewal fee rather than added to it.
- Expired 90 days or less: one and a half times the renewal fee.
- Expired more than 90 days and less than 18 months: two times the renewal fee.
- Expired at least 18 months and less than three years: two times the renewal fee, and it takes executive director approval plus documentation of the circumstances.
On a thirty dollar journeyman renewal those multipliers come to forty-five dollars and sixty dollars. Nobody loses a license over that. The real cost of letting one lapse is the stretch of days you were not licensed.
Fees that are not in this chapter
16 TAC 73.80 sets no examination fee. Tex. Occ. Code 1305.152(a)(4) has an applicant paying the application and examination fees, and the examination side is collected by the department's testing vendor at the amount current when you book. Confirm it on your own admission paperwork rather than from any summary, including this one.
A criminal history evaluation letter costs ten dollars under 16 TAC 60.42(c), and a separate request and a separate fee is needed for each occupational license sought.
16 TAC 73.80 sets no reciprocity fee either. An applicant licensed in a state with an agreement pays the ordinary application fee for the license type, off the same table above.
One fee waiver worth knowing
16 TAC 73.80(g) waives the license renewal fee for a master electrician, journeyman electrician or residential wireman who provides proof of having served as an instructor of a course within a career and technology education program for at least one academic semester.
The 1 July 2026 amendment extends that same waiver to instructors of an Accelerated Journeyman Electrician Education Program, according to the adoption preamble published in the 26 June 2026 Texas Register.
Tex. Occ. Code 1305.167(d) is the statutory counterpart, and it points at the career and technology education program described in Tex. Occ. Code 1305.1575. The reach to the accelerated program came from the rule amendment rather than from the statute, which is worth knowing if anyone tells you the statute settles it.
If you taught in either kind of program for a semester, ask about the waiver before you pay a renewal. It is not applied automatically.
What this page cites
- 16 TAC 73.80 Fees for every license type at (a), renewal at (b), duplicates at (d), non-refundability at (e), the ninety dollar program fee at (f) and the instructor waiver at (g). Read 24 August 2026. source
- 16 TAC 60.83 Late renewal fee multipliers, and the rule at (d) that the late fee replaces the renewal fee. source
- 16 TAC 60.42 Criminal history evaluation letter fee at subsection (c), and the separate request for each license at (d).
- Tex. Occ. Code 1305.167 Renewal, and the statutory instructor fee exemption at subsection (d).
- Texas Register, adopted rules, 26 June 2026 The Chapter 73 amendments effective 1 July 2026, including the changes to 16 TAC 73.80 subsections (f) and (g). source