Idaho · electrician licensing · verified July 2026
Idaho electrician license requirements
The short answer
As of July 2026, Idaho licenses electricians statewide through the Idaho Electrical Board under the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses (DOPL), per Idaho Code Title 54, Chapter 10. Journeyman applicants need 8,000 hours of work experience as a registered apprentice plus a four-year approved instruction sequence (or 16,000 hours of experience without the schooling) and must pass the NASCLA journeyman exam through PSI before applying; masters need 4 years as an active licensed journeyman plus the NASCLA master exam. Contractor and limited-category exams are administered in-house by DOPL, and Idaho has reciprocal agreements with Oregon and Wyoming.
Do you need a license to work as an electrician in Idaho?
Idaho licenses electricians statewide, so one credential is valid across the whole state.
NEC 2023 is the adopted code.
What licenses does Idaho issue?
The Idaho Electrical Board, Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses (DOPL) issues the credentials below for this trade. Boards often list further classes for specialties and business licenses; these are the ones this page covers.
Hours are what each class asks for on its own terms. Where a senior class shows fewer than a journeyman, the board is counting time served after the earlier license rather than from the start; the prerequisite column says which.
| License | On-the-job hours | Classroom hours | Exam |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apprentice Electrician (registration) | not published | not published | No |
| Residential Electrician | 4,000 | not published | Yes |
| Journeyman Electrician | 8,000 | not published | Yes |
| Provisional Journeyman Electrician | 16,000 | not published | No |
| Master Electrician | not published | not published | Yes |
| Limited Electrical Installer | 4,000 | not published | Yes |
| Electrical Contractor / Limited Electrical Contractor | not published | not published | Yes |
Source: Idaho Electrical Board, Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses (DOPL) (adminrules.idaho.gov). Verified July 2026.
Residential Electrician: 4,000 hours as a registered apprentice plus a 2-year approved instruction sequence
Journeyman Electrician: 8,000 hours as a registered apprentice + 4-year approved instruction sequence, OR 16,000 hours of electrical work experience
Provisional Journeyman Electrician: 16,000 hours of electrical experience; exam still pending
Limited Electrical Installer: 4,000 hours in the same limited category
How many hours do you need in Idaho?
Idaho requires 8,000 hours of on-the-job experience for a Journeyman Electrician license. At a 40-hour week the on-the-job portion is roughly 4 years of full-time work.
What exam does Idaho require?
NASCLA Electrical Journeyman Examination (must be passed before applying for licensure). Administered by PSI (NASCLA exam; DOPL revised the process effective June 18, 2024).
NASCLA Electrical Master Examination (must be passed before applying). Administered by PSI.
Electrical Contractor, Limited Contractor, and Limited Installer examinations. Administered by DOPL in-house (proctored in Boise, Blackfoot, and Coeur d'Alene).
Source: examination page (dopl.idaho.gov). Verified July 2026.
How much does an Idaho electrician license cost?
Getting a Journeyman Electrician license in Idaho costs $70 in board fees, before any training. That is the application fee and the initial license fee charged once, with renewal charged separately below. No board publishes this total, so it is added up here from the schedule it does publish. An exam is required and its fee is not in that figure, because no amount for it appears in the board material this page is built from. Check the board's current fee schedule before budgeting.
- Application fee$15
- Initial license fee$55
- Renewal fee (recurring)$45
How often do you renew, and what continuing education is required?
Renewal period: 3 years for journeyman, master, and limited installer; 1 year for electrical contractor, limited contractor, and apprentice registration; provisional journeyman is a 6-month license
Continuing education: Idaho Code 54-1013 conditions journeyman/master renewal on satisfying any continuing-education requirements 'as established by the electrical board'; the current Rules of the Idaho Electrical Board (IDAPA 24.39.10) contain no continuing-education hour requirement. No specific CE hour count is stated in current official rules.
How does the apprenticeship route work?
Apprentices must register with DOPL ($15/year, renewed annually) and work under constant supervision of a licensed electrician; Idaho Code 54-1007(2) requires all claimed apprentice hours to have been worked while registered. The standard journeyman path is 8,000 registered-apprentice hours plus a four-year related-instruction sequence approved by the Idaho Division of Career-Technical Education (evidenced by a provider certificate), then the NASCLA journeyman exam through PSI. An experience-only alternative of 16,000 hours (8 years) bypasses the classroom requirement.
Which states does Idaho have license reciprocity with?
Idaho appears in 10 published reciprocal licensing agreements for this trade, covering Colorado, Maine, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Wyoming. Boards write these as agreements between two states rather than as a one-way list, and some publish the list while their counterpart does not, so this counts every agreement naming Idaho from either side. Recognition is never automatic: the board you apply to decides, and most require the original license to have been earned by examination and to be in good standing.
How does Idaho compare to neighboring states?
Requirements stop at the state line, which matters if you live near one or expect to move. Here is what the neighboring states ask of the same trade.
| State | Journeyman hours | Licensing model |
|---|---|---|
| Idaho | 8,000 | Statewide |
| Montana | 8,000 | Statewide |
| Nevada | not published | Statewide |
| Oregon | 8,000 | Statewide |
| Utah | 8,000 | Statewide |
| Washington | 8,000 | Statewide |
| Wyoming | 8,000 | Statewide |
Source: state licensing boards. Verified July 2026.
How does Idaho compare nationally?
24 states publish an explicit hour figure for this trade, and they range from 8,000 to 10,000 hours. Idaho's 8,000 hours is what 23 of them ask, making it the standard rather than an outlier; no state asks less and 1 asks more. The full comparison is on the hours by state table.
Sources and verification
Every fact on this page traces to one of these
- Idaho Electrical Board homepage with fee schedule (DOPL; read via May 13, 2026 archived snapshot)
- Idaho Electrical Board - Program Information and Exams (DOPL; read via Feb 10, 2026 archived snapshot)
- Idaho Code 54-1007 - Issuance of licenses; reciprocity (read via archived legislature.idaho.gov page)
- IDAPA 24.39.10 - Rules of the Idaho Electrical Board (read via archived adminrules.idaho.gov PDF)
- Idaho Electrical Board homepage with fee schedule
- DOPL Electrical Program Information and Exams
- Idaho Code 54-1007
- Idaho Code 54-1013 - renewal, CE condition, $300,000 liability insurance
- IDAPA 24.39.10 Rules of the Idaho Electrical Board
Last verified July 2026, independently re-verified before publication. Found an error? Report it and it will be corrected and logged on the corrections page.
Other states with published requirements for this trade: Iowa, Kansas, Maine.
Price the whole path with the license cost estimator, or weigh earning against paying for school with the apprenticeship comparison. Back to electricians overview.
Licensing requirements change between our verification sweeps. This page is informational only, so confirm current requirements with Idaho Electrical Board, Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses (DOPL) before making decisions. Not legal advice.