Georgia contractor licenses: who needs one and how to check

Residential work worth more than $2,500 needs a residential contractor license, and commercial general contracting needs a general contractor license (O.C.G.A. § 43-41-17).

Licensing body: State Licensing Board for Residential and General Contractors (Secretary of State).

How licenses are organized

• Residential-Basic and Residential-Light Commercial.
• General Contractor, with no limit on project size.
• General Contractor Limited Tier, limited to $1 million per project.

Good to know

• Electrical, plumbing, conditioned air, low voltage and utility work need their own trade licenses; a general contractor cannot do that work without one.
• Many specialty trades are exempt from this board's license; the Secretary of State publishes the list.

Check a contractor's license

Search the state's own records by the business name or license number before you sign. On ContractorsNearMe.ai, a profile shows a Verified license badge only after we match its license to these records.