01
Requirements and steps
We use the state's published licensing requirements throughout this page. If the state doesn't publish a requirement, we don't guess.
1Figure out which license you need
In Arizona the license belongs to the contracting business, not to the electrician it employs. Working as an employee needs nothing of your own. One of the classes below becomes yours the day you start taking work in your own name.
2Choose the license class you're working toward
Each license class below has its own fees and exam rules. Start with the class you're working toward: everything below depends on it. We use the state's official license names, so you'll see the same terms on its forms.
3Build the required experience
The experience requirements for each license are quoted below exactly as the state publishes them. The licensing authority decides whether your experience qualifies, so keep your own record from day one and make sure your employer can verify your hours.
4Take the exam
If your license requires an exam, the exam name and its fee are listed under that license class. The licensing authority and the testing company are often different organizations, so the exam fee is often paid to the testing company. That's why the exam fee may appear in the candidate bulletin instead of the fee schedule.
5Apply, pay, and keep it current
Each license class below lists the fees the state publishes for it. Renewal varies by class too, so check the renewal period and fee for the class you are working toward rather than for the trade as a whole.
02
Apprenticeship and hours
Nothing on this page counts your time in hours. Where a board states the requirement in years instead, the years are in its own wording with each class, and turning them into hours would need a working week no board here publishes.
03
What it pays
Among the electricians on a payroll in Arizona, half earn more than $29.36 an hour and half earn less. The federal wage survey puts the annual figure at $61,060.5
- $21.89The bottom tenth earn this or less5
- $43.08The top tenth earn this or more5
These figures cover every experience level, from first-year apprentices to workers with decades on the job, so this is not what an apprentice earns. The survey counts 21,140 of these jobs. Self-employed workers are not included in the survey.5
The yearly figure assumes 2,080 paid hours, which is full time with no long gaps. Actual earnings can be lower where work is interrupted or seasonal.
Figures from the federal wage survey for May 2025, read 2026-08-16. The survey’s state file is a spreadsheet in a zip, not a web page.
04
If you want to run an electrical business
These credentials apply if you plan to take work in your own name. Each is issued to the business itself rather than to any one person.
Not published for any class here: job hours, classroom hours or licenses it recognizes from other states.
C-11 Electrical2
Held by the business · issued by the state
$100 to apply.8 $480 for the license itself.8 $127 to take the exam.8 Gmetrix for the Statutes and Rules Exam; PSI for the trade examination, or NASCLA for the electrical examination program administers the exam.8 You renew this every two years, for $480. The published renewal requirements do not list any additional hours requirement.9
Worth knowingThat $127 is two exams added together: $61 for the statutes and rules test and $66 for the trade test. You pay the two vendors, not the Registrar. Take the NASCLA electrical exam instead of the trade test and the total is $177.
C-11 Electrical
Four years of practical or management trade experience in this classification, at least two of them within the last ten years, held by the licence's QUALIFYING PARTY rather than by the business that holds the licence. Up to two of the four years may be satisfied by accredited technical training, and the Registrar waives the documentation entirely for a qualifying party who has held the same classification in Arizona before.1
CR-11 Electrical2
Held by the business · issued by the state
$100 to apply.8 $380 for the license itself.8 $127 to take the exam.8 Gmetrix for the Statutes and Rules Exam; PSI for the trade examination, or NASCLA for the electrical examination program administers the exam.8 You renew this every two years, for $650. The published renewal requirements do not list any additional hours requirement.9
Worth knowingThat $127 is two exams added together: $61 for the statutes and rules test and $66 for the trade test. You pay the two vendors, not the Registrar. Take the NASCLA electrical exam instead of the trade test and the total is $177.
CR-11 Electrical
Four years of practical or management trade experience in this classification, at least two of them within the last ten years, held by the licence's QUALIFYING PARTY rather than by the business that holds the licence. Up to two of the four years may be satisfied by accredited technical training, and the Registrar waives the documentation entirely for a qualifying party who has held the same classification in Arizona before.1
ROC doesn't list states that recognize it.
05
The examination
Gmetrix for the Statutes and Rules Exam; PSI for the trade examination, or NASCLA for the electrical examination program administers every exam listed on this page. The exam provider sets the exam content, publishes the study material and sets retake fees. Use the official exam names below when you look for study material, application instructions or retake information. Exam fees are listed with each class above.
- C-11 Electrical
- AZ Statutes and Rules Training Course and Exam (SRE), plus the trade examination for this classification7
- CR-11 Electrical
- AZ Statutes and Rules Training Course and Exam (SRE), plus the trade examination for this classification7
06
The licensing office, and how to reach it
The Arizona Registrar of Contractors issues all contractor credentials covered on this page.
ROC doesn't list who certifies the worker or where that sits.
07
Bringing a license in, and taking one out
Arizona issues no license to an individual electrician, so there is no personal credential for an out-of-state one to convert into. The business license is a separate application. Moving to Arizona? Contact Arizona Registrar of Contractors and ask whether your current license will be recognized. Leaving? Contact the licensing authority in the state where you plan to work.
C-11 Electrical: accepted the other way by California10
08
Questions people ask
Do you need a license to be an electrician in Arizona?
Arizona issues no state license to an individual electrician. Work for an employer and you need none from the state. What Arizona licenses is the contractor, meaning the business that holds the job. Take work in your own name, bid a job or pull a permit, and that contractor license is the one that applies to you. Cities can still license the trade themselves.
How long does it take to become a licensed electrician in Arizona?
Not as a number: Arizona doesn't publish an hours figure for any license on this page. Several states on these pages state the requirement in years instead, and turning years into hours needs a working week nobody publishes. So this page prints what was published. The experience wording with each class is where the answer is.
How much do electricians get paid in AZ?
The middle half of the electricians on a payroll in Arizona earn between $23.25 and $37.05 an hour, and half of all of them earn more than $29.36. These are straight-time figures, before any overtime, at every experience level, counted by the federal wage survey in May 2025. Self-employed workers are not included in them.5
How to make $100,000 a year as an electrician?
The top tenth of electricians on a payroll in Arizona earn above $43.08 an hour, which over a 2,080-hour year comes to more than $89,600. Those are straight-time figures: overtime pay is outside them, and so are self-employed workers. The federal wage survey counts what the top tenth earn above, not how many reach any figure past it.5
How much does an electrician license cost in Arizona?
The state publishes these: $100 to apply for C-11 Electrical, $100 to apply for CR-11 Electrical, $480 to be issued C-11 Electrical and $380 to be issued CR-11 Electrical. Each is per class, not per trade. None of them is the exam: where a vendor administers the exam, that fee is the vendor's and lives in its own bulletin.
Can I use an electrician license from another state in Arizona?
There may be nothing to transfer. Arizona issues no license to an individual electrician at all, so an out-of-state license has nothing here to convert into. Bringing a license in and taking one out are two separate agreements, signed and published separately. Contact the licensing authority in the state where you plan to work and ask what it will recognize.
How long does it take to become an electrician?
There is no national answer. Any page that gives you one is averaging states whose requirements differ by thousands of hours. Licensing is set state by state, and in some states city by city, so the honest version of this question has a place in it. What is the same everywhere is the shape: you learn on the job, the hours that count are the ones somebody signs for, and the clock starts the day the work does.
Can you become an electrician with no experience?
Yes, and that is the ordinary way in. These trades are learned at work rather than before it, which is why boards mostly require time on the job. What you cannot skip is the paperwork: the hours that count are the ones somebody signs for, so the question to ask an employer is who signs, not whether they will train you.
Is 30 too late to become an electrician?
No. Boards set a minimum age, not a maximum. No board on these pages sets an upper limit, and where age shows up at all it is a floor. The real question at 30 is money: an apprenticeship pays you while you learn and school charges you while you learn. That difference usually decides it.
How hard is the electrician licensing exam?
None of the boards on these pages publishes a pass rate. The useful question is who administers the exam: that organization sells the reference material for it and sets what a retake costs.