Arizona contractor license requirements

Arizona regulates contracting through a state-level general contractor license. This page lays out exactly what Arizona requires: the licensing agency, who must be licensed, experience, exams, fees, the financial responsibility mechanism, and reciprocity, every figure sourced and dated below.

Who must be licensed in Arizona

Arizona Registrar of Contractors (ROC) is the licensing authority. Any construction work above $1,000 for compensation generally requires a ROC license.

Experience and qualification

Arizona does not set a fixed statewide years-of-experience minimum; the ROC evaluates the qualifying party’s documented trade experience per classification at application.

License classes

• Commercial (Commercial classifications): Dual commercial/residential system across many trade classifications.
• Residential (Residential classifications (including the B-1 general residential license)): Covers residential general building and remodeling work.

Exam

Every applicant passes the Statutes and Rules Exam (SRE), now delivered online through GMetrix as a training-course-and-exam, plus a trade exam through PSI for the classification.

Fees

• ROC application and license fees (by classification): $720 to $1,050
• SRE fee: about $61
• Trade exam fee (PSI): about $66

Financial responsibility

Arizona uses surety bond ($1,000 to $100,000) as its financial-responsibility mechanism. The License Bond amount under A.R.S. section 32-1152 scales with the classification and anticipated annual gross volume of work.

Reciprocity and the NASCLA exam

Arizona accepts the NASCLA Accredited Examination for the commercial building classification, confirmed against NASCLA’s own participating-agencies list. If you already hold a NASCLA credential from another participating state, it can satisfy Arizona’s trade exam requirement (any state-specific business and law exam is still required). See the NASCLA exam explained and contractor license reciprocity for the full picture, and the 50-state comparison for which other states accept it.

Official source

Verify everything at the source: Arizona Registrar of Contractors (ROC), roc.az.gov. The NASCLA participating-agencies determination above is drawn from NASCLA’s own list, nascla.org, confirmed 2026-07-24.

Sources: Arizona Registrar of Contractors (ROC) (roc.az.gov, reviewed 2026-07-28); NASCLA participating state agencies list (nascla.org, confirmed 2026-07-24). Fee, bond, and experience figures are compiled from the agency's published requirements and current industry compliance guides as of 2026-07-28; treat any figure not independently reconfirmed against a fetched primary-source page as reported pending the next freshness review, per this site's standard practice.