Georgia Contractor License Fees
The 33 verified whole-dollar state licensing fees charged through GOALS by the State Licensing Board (Chapter 41 general contractors) and the State Construction Industry Licensing Board (Chapter 14 trades) — each read on the official schedule on 2026-10-03. Building permit fees are local in Georgia and are not on this page. Three withheld amounts are named below rather than guessed.
01 State fees vs local permit fees
- State licensing fees — listed below, one row per official GOALS fee-schedule line (© 2026) or the board's fee-schedule PDF. S-GA-FAQ
- Local permit fees — the city or county issues the building or trade permit and sets the fee schedule; the only published Georgia amount is Atlanta's minimum permit ($150 + $25 technology fee), kept as a requirement row, never a statewide fee — LOCAL_AUTHORITY_REQUIRED. S-GA-ATL-PERMIT
- The state gates the local permit — for licensed work the inspector may not issue a permit until the state license number is furnished (§ 43-41-14). S-GA-4341-14
- Renewal timing affects the bill — Chapter 41 renews June 30 of even-numbered years; after the six-month late window the license must be REINSTATED ($300 + CE evidence). S-GA-553-12
02 Chapter 41 — general contractors (State Licensing Board)
| Fee | Amount | Kind | Charged by | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chapter 41 license — application / prior approval GOALS $200.00 (read 2026-10-03). 'Prior Approval' is the path for a previously issued Georgia license in the same category without a new exam (chart p.4). Non-refundable (fee-schedule PDF). See CONFLICT-GA-003 for the PDF/How-To $10-per-application processing advisory that GOALS does not show. | $200 | application | State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Chapter 41 license — examination $200.00 GOALS row. The REEXAMINATION fee is board-set (rule 553-3-.01(6)) and has no separate GOALS row — NOT_VERIFIED (research §S.6). | $200 | application | State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Chapter 41 license — reactivation GOALS $200.00. The reactivation checklist may request a surety bond or line of credit as supporting documents (amount NOT_VERIFIED — REQ-GA-NO-BOND-001). | $200 | miscellaneous | State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Chapter 41 license — reciprocity application GOALS $200.00, non-refundable. Reciprocity is unavailable for Residential Light Commercial and GC Limited Tier (chart p.5); the Georgia Business & Law Exam is required for every reciprocity applicant. | $200 | miscellaneous | State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Chapter 41 license — reinstatement GOALS $300.00. Reinstatement also requires CE evidence for every lapsed biennium (residential) and the division may require re-examination (rules 553-12-.06(2)(3)). | $300 | miscellaneous | State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Chapter 41 license — inactivation (inactive status) GOALS $25.00. | $25 | miscellaneous | State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Chapter 41 license — biennial renewal GOALS $100.00 + How-To Guide agreement. The LATE renewal amount is deliberately NOT published here: GOALS shows $100.00 while the fee-schedule PDF (rev 06/22) and How-To Guide show $200.00 — CONFLICT-GA-003 (OPEN), amount withheld. The PDF also adds a $10-per-application processing fee GOALS does not show (caveat, same conflict). | $100 | renewal | State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Chapter 41 license — pocket card / duplicate license GOALS $25.00 (fee-schedule PDF: duplicate license $25 — checked, consistent). | $25 | miscellaneous | State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Chapter 41 license roster — active (individual / qualifying agent) | $50 | miscellaneous | State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Chapter 41 license roster — active (company) The Company license types carry only pocket card / roster / cease-and-desist rows on GOALS — the organization's record has no separate application fee (the QA application fee opens it; rule 553-4-.03(6)). | $75 | miscellaneous | State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Chapter 41 license roster — inactive | $25 | miscellaneous | State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Chapter 41 — cease and desist list | $75 | miscellaneous | State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| License verification (official verification document) Fee-schedule PDF (rev 06/22): License Verification $35.00 — free primary-source verification is also offered (the GOALS licensee search, S-GA-GOALS-LOOKUP). | $35 | miscellaneous | State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors | S-GA-FEE-PDF |
03 Conditioned air (State Construction Industry Licensing Board)
| Fee | Amount | Kind | Charged by | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conditioned Air license — examination GOALS $100.00 (read 2026-10-03). GOALS license-type names differ from the statutory Class I/II names — the mapping is not published by any official source (CONFLICT-GA-004, OPEN); statutory names are used for classifications. | $100 | application | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Conditioned Air license — reciprocity GOALS $30.00 — the only trade reciprocity row published on the pulled schedules; Ch.14 reciprocity conditions (§ 43-14-23) were NOT read → no trade reciprocity claims published (research §S.9). | $30 | miscellaneous | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Conditioned Air license — reinstatement GOALS $300.00 (identical amount shown for reinstatement after 3 years). | $300 | miscellaneous | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Conditioned Air license — biennial renewal GOALS $100.00 (two-year term, § 43-14-20(a)). | $100 | renewal | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Conditioned Air license — late renewal GOALS $100.00. CONFLICT-GA-003 concerns the Chapter 41 late-renewal row only — no second official source published a Ch.14 late-renewal amount, so this row is published as GOALS shows it. Window: ≤31 days (§ 43-14-20(c)). | $100 | renewal | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Conditioned Air license — pocket card | $25 | miscellaneous | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Conditioned Air license — wall certificate | $50 | miscellaneous | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Conditioned Air — license roster, active | $50 | miscellaneous | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Conditioned Air — license roster, active (company) | $75 | miscellaneous | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Conditioned Air — license roster, inactive | $25 | miscellaneous | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Conditioned Air — cease and desist list | $75 | miscellaneous | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
04 Plumbing (State Construction Industry Licensing Board)
| Fee | Amount | Kind | Charged by | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbing license — biennial renewal | $100 | renewal | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Plumbing license — examination | $100 | application | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Plumbing license — reinstatement | $300 | miscellaneous | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Plumbing license — late renewal GOALS $100.00 (window ≤31 days, § 43-14-20(c)). | $100 | renewal | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Plumbing license — pocket card | $25 | miscellaneous | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Plumbing license — wall certificate | $50 | miscellaneous | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Plumbing — license roster, active No separate company-roster row was published on the pulled plumbing schedule — not asserted. | $50 | miscellaneous | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Plumbing — license roster, inactive | $25 | miscellaneous | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
| Plumbing — cease and desist list | $75 | miscellaneous | State Construction Industry Licensing Board | S-GA-GOALS-FEES |
05 Withheld on purpose — never guessed
- Chapter 41 late-renewal amount — GOALS shows $100.00 while the official fee-schedule PDF (rev 06/22) and the board How-To Guide show $200.00: two publications of the same board, no statute or rule fixing either amount (CONFLICT-GA-003, OPEN). No figure is published here.
- $10 per-application processing fee — the PDF announces it ("Effective March 2022, a $10 processing fee will be added to each application fee") but GOALS application rows show none. Carried as a CAVEAT on the application rows above, not as a fee row.
- Reexamination fee — board-set by rule 553-3-.01(6) with no GOALS row; amount not read this phase.
- Electrical, low-voltage and utility (Ch.14) fee rows — not present on the GOALS schedule read 2026-10-03; not captured, so no amount appears.
06 Documented conflicts
'49 Reference - Fee Schedule.pdf' (Revised 06/22, linked by the board as the current fee schedule): 'Late Renewal $200'; 'New Fee Alert - Effective March 2022, a $10 processing fee will be added to each application fee.' How-To Guide #Fees (read 2026-10-03): 'Late renewal $200'.
49 Reference — Fee Schedule (Revised 06/22) | Georgia SOSGOALS 'Fee Schedules by Board' (live, © 2026, read in a real browser 2026-10-03): Late Renewal Fee $100.00; application rows show $200.00 with NO $10 processing line.
Fee Schedules by Board — Georgia SOS GOALS (live © 2026)OPEN — no hierarchy resolves two publications of the same board: rule 553-6-.01 delegates amounts to 'the Fee Schedule' without fixing them, and no statute or rule states either amount. HANDLING: the Chapter 41 late-renewal amount is WITHHELD from definitive output (no FEE row; the conflict is shown on the fees page); the $10 processing advisory is published as a CAVEAT on application-fee rows; every other base amount agrees across both sources and is published from the GOALS schedule.
Analysis notes
Detected 2026-10-03 while seeding FEE-GA-CH41-RENEWAL. The two sides disagree by 2x on the late fee and by the existence of a $10 add-on — material to anyone budgeting a late renewal, which is exactly why neither number is published as settled.
Statute (Act 472/SB 553, eff. 2026-07-01): Conditioned Air Contractor Class I / Class II (§ 43-14-2(5)(6)); Master Plumber Class I / Class II (§ 43-14-2(24)(25)); Electrical Contractor Class I / Class II (§ 43-14-2(10)(11)).
O.C.G.A. § 43-14-2 — Chapter 14 definitions (current text)GOALS fee schedule (© 2026): license types 'Conditioned Air Non-Restricted', 'Conditioned Air Restricted', 'Master Plumber - Non-Restricted', 'Master Plumber - Restricted' — no Class I/II rows.
Fee Schedules by Board — Georgia SOS GOALS (live © 2026)OPEN — the fee system's license-type names do not match the post-SB 553 statutory class names, and NO official source publishes the mapping (Restricted↔Class I is plausible but UNSUPPORTED). HANDLING: classifications use the STATUTORY class names; GOALS fee rows are attached under their PUBLISHED GOALS names as fee subjects (labels say so); no equivalence between the two naming systems is ever asserted.
Analysis notes
Detected 2026-10-03 while seeding the conditioned-air and plumbing fee rows. A future official crosswalk would resolve it; until then the fees page shows the naming caveat wherever GOALS names appear.
Every other official pairing was checked the same day and found consistent: GOALS vs the fee-schedule PDF on every non-disputed base amount (application $200, renewal $100, reinstatement $300, pocket card $25, roster rows), the How-To Guides' fee anchors against GOALS, and the conditioned-air / plumbing rows across their GOALS families — one charge, counted once (the chart's separate "processing" sentence is the caveat above, not a second fee).
07 Sources
Source S-GA-FEE-PDF — State Licensing Board for Residential and Commercial General Contractors
49 Reference — Fee Schedule (Revised 06/22) | State Licensing Board (Georgia SOS) — Official fee schedule PDF (Revised 06/22) — 'Late Renewal $200' + $10 processing notice (read 2026-10-03)
https://sos.ga.gov/sites/default/files/forms/49%20Reference%20-%20Fee%20Schedule.pdf
Retrieved 2026-10-03 · last verified 2026-10-03 · published 2022-06-01
PDF downloaded and text-extracted (pdftotext) 2026-10-03. The board links this as the current fee schedule. Base amounts agree with GOALS (application $200, inactivation $25, reactivation $200, reciprocity $200, reinstatement $300, renewal $100, pocket card $25) — plus License Verification $35.00 (free primary-source verification also offered), 'Fees are non-refundable', returned-check service charge under O.C.G.A. § 16-9-20. Side A of CONFLICT-GA-003: 'Late Renewal $200' and 'New Fee Alert - Effective March 2022, a $10 processing fee will be added to each application fee' — neither matches the live GOALS rows.