US CPA Licensure Requirements 2026: The 150-Hour Rule vs the New 120-Hour Pathway

Passing all four sections of the US CPA exam is not the same as becoming a licensed CPA. Licensure is granted by an individual state board of accountancy, and every board sets its own education and experience requirements on top of the exam itself. For decades that meant one rule almost everywhere: 150 credit hours of education, typically a bachelor's degree plus an extra 30 hours from a master's or additional coursework. That is now changing. As of mid-2026, a growing number of states have introduced an alternative path to licensure that trades the extra 30 credit hours for additional work experience instead, and the choice between the two pathways can materially change how quickly, and how expensively, a candidate reaches licensure.

The traditional 150-hour rule

Under the long-standing model, candidates need 150 semester hours of college education to qualify for licensure, roughly a bachelor's degree (120 hours) plus an additional 30 hours, commonly earned through a master's degree, a second major, or extra accounting and business coursework. On top of the education requirement, candidates also need one year of qualifying professional experience, typically verified by a licensed CPA. This pathway has been the default in nearly every US jurisdiction and remains the only option in states that have not adopted the newer alternative.

The new alternative: 120 hours plus two years of experience

The alternative pathway lets candidates qualify with a standard 120-hour bachelor's degree, the same volume of education needed simply to sit the exam, provided they complete two years of qualifying professional experience instead of one. In effect, the extra year of supervised work in the profession substitutes for the extra 30 credit hours of coursework. This does not change what is tested on the exam itself; the CPA exam content and pass mark are the same regardless of which licensure pathway a candidate follows. It changes only the education-versus-experience mix required to actually hold the license once the exam is passed.

Which states have adopted the alternative pathway

Adoption is state by state, not national, because each board of accountancy sets its own licensure rules under its own state legislation. As of July 2026, 27 US jurisdictions have adopted or enacted the alternative pathway. Twenty-four have an active pathway already in effect: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas (as a second licensure option alongside its existing pathway), Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia. A further three have enacted legislation that takes effect later: Alabama and Maryland in October 2026, and Colorado in January 2027. Every other jurisdiction still operates on the traditional 150-hour rule only, and the list of adopting states continues to grow, so candidates should always check the current status with the specific state board they plan to be licensed through rather than assuming a state's position based on older information.

Why this matters more for international candidates

For candidates coming to the US CPA from outside the US, this distinction is often more consequential than it first appears. Many international candidates already hold a bachelor's degree and, frequently, a professional qualification such as ACCA or a local chartered accountancy designation, but the 150-hour rule has historically forced a choice between completing extra US-recognised coursework (often through a credential evaluation and top-up courses) or accepting a longer route to eligibility. A candidate targeting a state with the alternative pathway can instead qualify on a standard bachelor's degree, provided they can source two years of qualifying experience, which is often easier to arrange, particularly for candidates already working in accounting or audit roles that a state board is likely to accept as qualifying. The practical effect is that the choice of which state to pursue licensure through, something many international candidates treat as an afterthought once they have picked a testing jurisdiction, can now directly determine whether extra coursework is needed at all.

How to check what your target state actually requires

Because licensure rules sit with the state board rather than with the exam itself, the only reliable way to confirm current requirements is to check the specific board of accountancy for the state a candidate intends to be licensed through, since a board's published education and experience rules take precedence over any general summary, including this one. NASBA's exam transition and licensure resources are a useful starting point for confirming which pathway options a given jurisdiction currently offers, and state board rules can and do continue to change as more jurisdictions consider adopting the alternative pathway.

Checklist for choosing a state and pathway

• Confirm which pathway, or pathways, your target state currently offers before assuming you need the extra 30 credit hours.
• If a state offers the alternative pathway, check exactly what counts as qualifying experience there, since the two-year requirement is stricter about verification than a shorter one-year requirement tends to be.
• Do not assume every state's rules match; a candidate who has researched one state's requirements should re-check before switching their intended licensing jurisdiction.
• Factor licensure requirements into your state choice at the same time you choose where to sit the exam, rather than treating licensure as a separate decision to revisit later.
• Re-verify directly with the state board close to when you plan to apply for licensure, since several additional jurisdictions have pending legislation that could change the picture again.

Licensure requirements are a separate question from exam content, but they shape the overall path just as much as the syllabus does. For the exam side of the journey, see our full breakdown of the US CPA syllabus and exam sections, and for candidates weighing up eligibility routes more broadly, our guides on US CPA eligibility for Indian students and US CPA for UK accountants cover the wider qualification picture beyond the licensure pathway alone.