Registered Nurse (RN) License Renewal in Alabama
Alabama RNs renew every 2 years with 24 contact hours of CE, uploaded as proof before renewing. Single-state renewal is $103.50, and Alabama is a compact state.
| Renewal cycle | Every 2 years |
|---|---|
| CE hours required | 24 hours 24 Board-approved contact hours per renewal (a contact hour is 50 minutes). Unlike most states, Alabama requires you to upload proof of the hours to your ABN CE Record before the renewal can be submitted. Single-state renewal is $103.50; a multistate license renews at $203.50. |
| Renewal fee | $103.50 |
| Mandatory CE topics | Alabama Nurse Practice Act (free 4-hour ABN class, one-time, before your first renewal) |
| Licensing board | Alabama Board of Nursing (ABN) |
Sourced from Alabama Board of Nursing (ABN), verified July 18, 2026. Requirements change. Confirm with your board before relying on this.
Alabama is stricter about one thing than almost every state in this reference: it makes you prove your continuing education before it will let you renew. Twenty-four contact hours, uploaded to your Board CE Record, and the renewal button doesn’t work until they’re there. Most states take your word and audit later. Alabama checks at the door.
Twenty-four hours, proven up front
An active Alabama RN earns 24 Board-approved contact hours per two-year renewal, where a contact hour is 50 minutes of organized learning. The rule that catches people is procedural, not numeric: the renewal cannot be submitted until documentation of at least 24 contact hours has been uploaded to your CE Record on the ABN website. There’s no “renew now, finish the hours later” path the way Kentucky allows. Get the hours, upload them, then renew, in that order.
New Alabama nurses have one extra, one-time step: a free four-hour Nurse Practice Act class from the Board, completed before the first renewal. It’s provided by the ABN itself, you don’t buy it elsewhere, and once done it’s never repeated. It’s listed above as a reminder because it’s easy for a new licensee to miss while focused on the 24 general hours.
Renewal is biennial, on even years, with a hard cutoff
Alabama renews RN licenses every two years, during a window that opens 8:00 a.m. September 1 and closes 4:30 p.m. on December 31 of even-numbered years (LPNs run on odd years). That 4:30 p.m. cutoff is literal: the Board’s language is that if you fail to renew by 4:30 on December 31, the license lapses and you’re no longer legally authorized to practice. Treat the afternoon of the 31st as already too late and renew before it.
The fee depends on which license you hold
Alabama prices single-state and multistate licenses differently, and it’s a real gap:
- Single-state RN renewal: $103.50 ($100 license fee + $3.50 transaction fee).
- Multistate (compact) RN renewal: $203.50 ($200 license fee + $3.50 transaction fee).
So a compact license costs $100 more per cycle here than a single-state one. That’s the trade for multistate practice privileges, worth weighing if you don’t actually work across state lines. The fee box above shows the single-state figure.
Alabama is a compact state
Alabama implemented the Nurse Licensure Compact on January 1, 2020. If Alabama is your primary state of residence, your RN license can be a multistate license, letting you practice in the other compact states without applying separately in each, at the higher fee noted above. That reaches into compact neighbors like Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. The privilege follows your legal residence. Use the compact checker below to see exactly which states an Alabama license reaches.
Add your renewal deadline to your calendar
Enter your expiration date and download a calendar file. Your own calendar will remind you at 90, 60, 30, and 7 days out. We don't ask for your email, we store nothing, and the date never leaves your device.
Works with Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, and Outlook. This is a convenience, not a compliance service. Confirm your exact deadline with the Alabama Board of Nursing (ABN).
How many CE hours do you have left?
Alabama requires 24 CE hours this cycle. Enter what you've completed and see what's left. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.
Hours alone aren't the whole requirement. Some must be these specific topics:
- Alabama Nurse Practice Act (free 4-hour ABN class, one-time, before your first renewal)
A convenience, not a compliance service. Confirm your exact requirement with the Alabama Board of Nursing (ABN). This is not legal advice.
Continuing education hours per renewal cycle
Alabama asks for 24 hours. That is below the median of 30 across the 37 states that set a flat hour count, which run from 8 to 40. Ranked lowest to highest, Alabama is 12 of 37.
Renewal fee
Alabama charges $103.50. The median across the 49 states that publish a figure is $100, running from $50 to $245. Ranked cheapest to dearest, Alabama is 28 of 49.
Each mark is one state. The taller line is the median, the filled dot is Alabama. States that set no flat hour count, or publish no fee, are left out of that comparison rather than counted as zero.
Where can you practice with your license?
The Nurse Licensure Compact lets a nurse who lives in a compact state hold one multistate license and practice in every other compact state. Pick where you live to see whether that's you, and where it reaches.
Member data from the NCSBN Nurse Licensure Compact map, verified July 2026. A multistate license requires the compact state to be your primary residence. This is a convenience, not legal advice. Confirm your status with your board or at nursecompact.com.
What will this renewal cost?
Alabama's renewal fee is filled in from the board below. Add what you expect to spend on CE courses, plus a late fee if you're past due, for a running total. Nothing you type is stored.
The renewal fee is from the Alabama Board of Nursing (ABN) and dated on this page; the CE and late-fee figures are your own estimates. A convenience, not a compliance service, and not legal advice. Confirm fees with your board.