LBExamTwo organizations take money from you on the way to a California contractor license, and they take it for different things. The Contractors State License Board (CSLB) takes the application and license fees, which are set by board regulation. The organization that runs the exam takes the exam fee, which is not a published dollar amount at all. Knowing which is which saves a phone call, and it tells you what a failed sitting really costs.
What CSLB charges
Every figure below comes from the board’s own fee regulation, 16 CCR s. 811: applications under subdivision (a), initial licenses and registrations under subdivision (c), renewals under subdivision (d). Bus. & Prof. Code s. 7137 sets the ceiling each of those amounts can be raised to, so these are the current figures, not permanent ones. Read September 2, 2026.
| What | Fee |
|---|---|
| Original application, exam or waiver, one classification | $450 |
| Each additional classification on an original application | $150 |
| Additional classification on an existing license | $230 |
| Replacing the qualifier | $230 |
| Initial license, sole owner | $200 |
| Initial license, partnership, corporation, limited liability company or joint venture | $350 |
| Home Improvement Salesperson registration | $200 |
| Active renewal, sole owner | $450 |
| Active renewal, everyone else | $700 |
A veteran of the United States Armed Forces, including the National Guard and Reserve components, who was not dishonorably discharged pays half the initial license and registration fees. The statute asks for a driver’s license or state identification card with the word Veteran on its face, or a DD214 long form.
C-10 electrical contractors pay $20 on top of the active renewal fee, which the statute earmarks for enforcing the Labor Code’s electrician certification rules.
Two amounts are not CSLB’s at all. Live Scan fingerprinting costs a $32 Department of Justice processing fee and a $17 FBI processing fee, plus a rolling fee that each Live Scan site sets for itself.
What sitting the exam costs
The exam fee has no published dollar figure. The statute caps it at cost instead: the fee to take an examination conducted or administered by a public or private organization shall be no greater than the actual cost of administering it, and shall be paid directly to that organization by the applicant (s. 7137(a)(2)). So the number moves with PSI’s costs, and you get it on your Notice to Schedule, not off a web page.
One figure is published, and it is the one that matters after a fail. Rescheduling an examination costs $100, set by 16 CCR s. 811(b)(1) for an applicant who has applied for an original license, an additional classification, a change of qualifier, or an asbestos or hazardous substance removal certification. It applies whether you failed, missed the appointment, or just want a different date at short notice.
Booking, and the two-day rule
The order is fixed. File the application. Wait for CSLB to accept it and refer it for testing. CSLB mails you a Notice to Schedule for Examination. Only then can you pay PSI and book, on the PSI website or by phone. You cannot preschedule before the referral.
Each exam is its own appointment and its own fee, so you can sit the Law and Business exam and the trade exam on one day or weeks apart, whichever suits you.
Moving an appointment is free if PSI has your cancellation two days before the appointment date. For a 9:00 a.m. Monday sitting, that means before 9:00 a.m. the Saturday before. Do it on the PSI website or by speaking to a person at PSI. CSLB is clear that a voicemail or an email to either organization does not cancel anything.
You lose the fee if you do not cancel in time, do not show up, arrive after the start time, or arrive without the identification the rules require.
Eighteen months, and the wait between attempts
Eighteen months. Your examination eligibility expires if you have not passed within eighteen months of CSLB accepting your application. After that the application is void, you file a new one with new fees, and any extension is up to CSLB. If you sit an exam within three weeks of the void date, that sitting was your last chance, because the retake wait alone runs past it.
Twenty-one days. You can retake a failed exam after 21 calendar days. There is no cap on how many attempts fit inside the eighteen-month window. The cap is the window itself, and the $100 rescheduling fee on each attempt.
A third period works in your favor. Exam results are good for five years. Pass one paper and fail the other, and you only retake the one you failed, inside that time.
What a failed sitting really costs
A $100 rescheduling fee, 21 days of waiting, and worse odds. Across all CSLB examinations in FY 2022/23, first attempts passed at 71 percent and retakes at 37 percent. The same gap shows up in FY 2021/22 (74 and 40), FY 2020/21 (76 and 37) and FY 2019/20 (74 and 38).
A retaker has something a first-timer does not: the failing score report. It breaks your result down by section, against the same seven sections the study guide names. Plan your next three weeks from that sheet.
Sources
- CSLB Examinations Frequently Asked Questions, CSLB List of All CSLB Fees, and CSLB’s fingerprinting questions and answers, which carry the Live Scan processing fees: all three committed in the corpus as documents of
cslb-applicant-pages - Get Licensed to Build, CSLB
- CSLB 2023 Sunset Report, pages 57 to 58, committed in the corpus as
cslb-sunset-review-report-2023 - Contractors State License Law, Business and Professions Code, Division 3, Chapter 9
- CSLB board rules, California Code of Regulations, Title 16, Division 8, s. 811