About the Texas Master Electrician license
Texas licenses electricians through the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR). The Master Electrician is the senior credential. It requires you to first hold a Texas Journeyman Electrician license for at least two years, document the required on-the-job training hours under the supervision of a Texas Master Electrician (TDLR currently requires 12,000 hours for the master credential), and pass 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 Texas adopts the NEC as its electrical code. It is open book, but Texas/PSI enforce specific rules on what you may bring: only a soft-bound copy of the adopted NEC is accepted (no loose-leaf, spiral-bound, or ring-bound copies), and any tabs must be factory-printed permanent index tabs provided by the code's publisher — homemade or handwritten tabs, sticky notes, and loose reference sheets are not allowed. Highlighting and underlining done before the exam are fine, but you may not write in the book during the exam. Check the current rule on the PSI candidate information bulletin. 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 Texas licensing works
- Experience: for the Master license, hold an active Texas Journeyman Electrician license for at least two years and document the required on-the-job training hours (currently 12,000 hours) supervised by a Texas Master Electrician, verified on TDLR's experience form by each supervising master.
- Education: approved instruction hours or completion of an approved apprenticeship program count toward the journeyman experience that underlies the master credential.
- Application: submit the Master Electrician License Application by mail with the non-refundable fee and your signed experience verification to TDLR before you are approved to sit; all requirements must be met within 12 months of filing.
- Renewal: Texas electrician licenses renew on a one-year cycle and require continuing education (currently 4 hours annually, including code-update content when a new NEC edition is adopted).
This sitting is referenced to the 2026 NEC as of September 1, 2026. Ampacity columns, GFCI and AFCI scope, working-clearance distances, and receptacle rules have moved between editions. Look them up in the 2026 book on the desk. Do not treat an older edition as the one this bulletin names.
This is the opening of the full study guide. The complete guide continues into code navigation, worked calculations and solved exam questions.
