About the Alabama Electrical Contractor license
Alabama licenses electricians through the Alabama Electrical Contractors Board (AECB). The Electrical Contractor is the senior credential — Alabama does not issue a separate "Master Electrician" license; Electrical Contractor is the top tier. It requires 8,000 hours (about four years) of documented experience in the design, layout, planning, and direct supervision of electrical construction activities (commonly satisfied while working as a journeyman-in-charge), and passing a more demanding exam that adds heavier load-calculation, design, and code-application content. A holder at this level can typically pull permits, supervise journeymen and apprentices, design installations, and serve as the qualifying individual for a licensed contracting business.
The exam is National Electrical Code (NEC) based, because Alabama adopts the NEC as its electrical code. It is normally open book: you may bring a clean, bound copy of the adopted NEC edition. The July 22, 2026 Prov bulletin allows highlighting and permanent tabs. Handwritten notes, Post-it notes, and photocopied inserts are not allowed. Plan to tab and index your code book before test day, because the exam is as much a test of how fast you can locate a section as it is of what you have memorized.
Know these scope facts cold, because the exam asks them in plain-language form: the license is held by the individual, not the company; most installations require a permit and inspection before concealment (rough-in) and again at final; you must work within the classification you hold; and performing electrical work without the required license, or beyond your scope, is a violation that can cost you the license and carry civil penalties.
How Alabama licensing works
- Experience: the Journeyman license requires 8,000 hours (about four years) of documented hands-on electrical experience. The Electrical Contractor license requires its own 8,000 hours (about four years) of experience in the design, layout, planning, and direct supervision of electrical construction. For both, up to 2,000 of those hours may be substituted with approved electrical education or apprenticeship coursework.
- Education: approved instruction hours or completion of an approved apprenticeship program count toward the journeyman experience that underlies the master credential.
- Application: submit the application, fees, and proof of experience (often signed off by a supervising/master electrician or employer) to the board before you are approved to sit.
- Exam vendor: Prov, Inc. All exams are open book and timed. The required passing score is 75 percent. The journeyman exam is 80 questions over 4 hours. The electrical contractor exam is 110 questions over 5 hours. The July 22, 2026 Prov bulletin prints both lengths and a 75 percent score.
- Renewal: licenses renew annually. Electrical and provisional electrical contractors obtain 14 hours of continuing education every two years under 303-X-4-.02. The first year of certification does not require it. The Board’s October 2, 2026 notice says 2027 is a continuing-education year: 14 hours before the 2027 renewal for 2028, reported by the provider through the portal for hours taken after May 1, 2026. That rule names contractors, not journeyman electricians.
The July 22, 2026 Prov bulletin lists the 2023 NEC. The Board forms page says testing on the 2026 NEC begins January 1, 2027. This sitting is still the 2023 book. Ampacities, GFCI/AFCI scope, working-clearance distances, and receptacle-spacing rules all change between editions, and the exam is written to the edition your state has adopted — not necessarily the newest one published.
This is the opening of the full study guide. The complete guide continues into code navigation, worked calculations and solved exam questions.
