Florida Concealed Weapon or Firearm License (CWFL) - Fees & Costs

Bottom Line

The Florida CWFL fee structure is set by statute, not by FDACS rule. Under Fla. Stat. § 790.06(5)(b), the application fee is capped at $55 for an original license and $45 for a renewal, plus the cost of fingerprint processing borne by the applicant. The current fingerprint-processing fee charged by FDACS is $42, so a new license costs $97 to FDACS. A Florida-resident renewal is $45; an out-of-state renewal runs $87, because out-of-state licensees resubmit fingerprints at renewal under § 790.06(11)(a) and carry the $42 processing fee again. There is no senior-citizen discount in chapter 790 - Florida law does not reduce the application or renewal fee on the basis of age. Active-duty servicemembers and honorably discharged veterans receive expedited processing under § 790.06(5)(f) and § 790.06(6)(f), but not a fee waiver. Florida law enforcement officers and judges are the applicants who do get statutory fee relief, on the schedule set out below. Tax collectors authorized to accept CWFL applications under § 790.0625 may add a separate convenience fee, which § 790.0625(5) caps at $22 on a new application and $12 on a renewal. Outside the FDACS-collected fees, the applicant must pay the cost of the qualifying firearms course required under § 790.06(2)(h), which is set by the instructor. A realistic out-of-pocket total for a new Florida CWFL - combining the $97 FDACS total and a typical $50-$150 instructor course - runs roughly $147 to $247, before any range time, ammunition, or tax-collector convenience fee.

Statutory Fee Caps Under § 790.06(5)(b)

Fla. Stat. § 790.06(5)(b) sets out the schedule directly: "The applicant shall submit ... a nonrefundable license fee of not more than $55 if he or she has not previously been issued a statewide license or a nonrefundable license fee of not more than $45 for renewal of a statewide license. Costs for processing the set of fingerprints as required in paragraph (a) shall be borne by the applicant."

Two features of this provision are worth noting. First, the fee is denominated as a statutory cap - "not more than" - rather than a fixed schedule. FDACS may charge less; it cannot charge more without a legislative amendment. In practice the Department charges the maximum: $55 original / $45 renewal. Second, the fingerprint-processing cost is structurally separate from the license fee. The applicant pays it in addition to the § 790.06(5)(b) cap, not as part of it. The current fingerprint-processing fee charged by FDACS is $42, applied to both original and renewal applications that require a new print capture.

§ 790.06(14) directs that all fees collected under § 790.06 are deposited into the Division of Licensing Trust Fund within FDACS, to be used to administer the licensing program over the seven-year license term established in § 790.06(1)(c). License revenue does not flow to general revenue and may not be diverted from the licensing function.

Consular-Security-Official Fees Under § 790.06(6)(e)

§ 790.06(6)(e) establishes a separate fee track for foreign consular-security officials issued a CWFL under § 790.06(2)(a). Such an official "must be issued a license within 20 days after the date of the receipt of a completed application, certification document, color photograph as specified in paragraph (5)(e), and a nonrefundable license fee of $300," and the license "shall be valid for 1 year." The fee is a fixed $300 rather than a cap, and the term is one year rather than the standard seven. This track has no analogue in the standard application process and applies only to the small number of foreign-consulate security personnel certified under treaty arrangements.

Fingerprint Processing - § 790.06(5) and § 943.053(3)(b)

§ 790.06(5)(a) requires the applicant to "submit ... a full set of fingerprints administered by a law enforcement agency or the Division of Licensing of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services." § 943.053(3)(b) authorizes the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to set fingerprint-processing fees by rule for criminal-history records checks. The CWFL fingerprint-processing component covers the FBI national check, the FDLE state check, and the retained-print-monitoring service that flags subsequent arrests of license holders during the 7-year term.

The total fingerprint-processing fee currently charged by FDACS is $42, billed at the time of application. This fee is separate from any capture fee charged by the agency that physically takes the prints - see the tax-collector and law-enforcement fingerprinting subsection below.

Tax-Collector Convenience Fees Under § 790.0625

§ 790.0625(2) authorizes FDACS, at its discretion, to appoint tax collectors to accept CWFL applications on the department's behalf. § 790.0625(5) sets the convenience fee the appointed tax collector "may collect and retain" for that in-person service - digital fingerprint capture, document verification, and photo capture - separate from the FDACS license fee and the fingerprint-processing fee. The statute names specific amounts rather than a cost-recovery standard:

The tax-collector convenience fee is paid directly to the tax collector at the time of application and is not part of the § 790.06(5)(b) statutory cap; the tax collector remits the § 790.06 license fees weekly to FDACS and keeps the convenience fee. An applicant who files directly with FDACS pays no convenience fee at all, so filing through the Division of Licensing rather than a tax collector saves up to $22 on a new application. An applicant who completes a fully mailed-in application - sending FDACS a paper fingerprint card, photograph, and the statutory fees - also pays no tax-collector convenience fee, but bears whatever the agency that rolled the prints charges for that capture service (a sheriff's office may charge up to $5 under § 790.06(6)(b)).

Course and Range Costs - § 790.06(2)(h) Competence Requirement

§ 790.06(2)(h) requires the applicant to demonstrate competence with a firearm through one of seven enumerated paths - most commonly an NRA basics course, a hunter-safety course, or any course taught by an NRA-, CJSTC-, or FDACS-certified firearms instructor. The cost of the qualifying course is set entirely by the instructor or sponsoring organization. Florida statute does not cap, regulate, or subsidize this cost; it is a private transaction outside the FDACS fee structure. Typical Florida CWFL-qualifying courses run 4 to 6 hours and are priced in the $50 to $150 range, depending on instructor, location, and whether range time and ammunition are included. Range fees, where charged separately, typically run $20 to $50. Detail on what the course must include - particularly the live-fire requirement codified by the 2017 amendment to § 790.06(2)(h) - is covered in TRAINING_REQUIREMENTS.

Replacement and Address-Change Fees - § 790.06(8) and § 790.06(11)(a)

§ 790.06(8) addresses lost or destroyed licenses: a license holder must notify FDACS in writing within 30 days, and FDACS issues a replacement upon payment of a $15 fee. The replacement license is valid for the unexpired portion of the original 7-year term - payment of the replacement fee does not extend the license.

§ 790.06(11)(a) addresses changes of address. A license holder must notify FDACS in writing within 30 days of a permanent change of residence address. Florida statute does not impose a fee for an address change. The FDACS online licensing portal accepts address-change submissions at no cost, and FDACS does not reissue a physical card on an address change - the existing card remains valid through expiration.

No Senior-Citizen Discount in Chapter 790

A common point of confusion is whether Florida offers a senior-citizen reduced fee on the CWFL. It does not. Chapter 790 contains no age-graduated fee schedule. Every eligible applicant pays the same § 790.06(5)(b) cap regardless of age. That now includes applicants aged 18 to 20: § 790.06(2)(b) still reads 21 on its face, but the Fourth District Court of Appeal held the paragraph facially unconstitutional as to 18- to 20-year-olds in Eubanks v. State, No. 4D2025-1698 (Fla. 4th DCA, June 17, 2026), the Attorney General announced the same day that the state would not seek further review, and FDACS now issues licenses to applicants 18 and older who meet all other eligibility requirements. A newly eligible 18- to 20-year-old pays the same $55 license fee and the same fingerprint-processing fee as anyone else. Applicants who hold a Florida driver license issued without an expiration date under the senior-driver provisions of chapter 322 still pay the standard § 790.06(5)(b) fees. Where reduced or waived CWFL fees appear in marketing materials from third-party course providers, those reductions apply to the course fee the instructor charges, not to the FDACS license or fingerprint fees.

Military and Veteran Applicants - Expedited Processing, Not a Fee Waiver

§ 790.06(5)(f) and § 790.06(6)(f) direct FDACS to expedite the application of an active-duty servicemember, an honorably discharged veteran, or a current or retired law-enforcement officer. Expedited processing means FDACS moves the file to the front of the queue and may issue substantially faster than the § 790.06(6)(c) 90-day statutory ceiling. It does not mean a fee waiver. The military and veteran applicant pays the full $55 original / $45 renewal § 790.06(5)(b) fee and the full fingerprint-processing fee. This differs from some other states - Texas, for example, waives the license fee outright for active-duty servicemembers and certain veterans - and is a common point of confusion for servicemembers relocating to Florida.

Servicemembers and honorably discharged veterans do get a separate benefit that is not a fee benefit. § 790.062(1) provides that "[n]otwithstanding s. 790.06(2)(b)," FDACS shall license an otherwise qualified servicemember (as defined in § 250.01) or a veteran discharged under honorable conditions, which allowed licensure at 18 long before Eubanks opened licensure to all 18-year-olds. § 790.062(2) also lets FDACS accept fingerprints taken by a military provost or other military law enforcement unit, and exempts those fingerprint charges from the sales tax on fingerprint services in § 212.05(1)(i).

§ 790.06(11)(b) provides a separate protection: a license holder serving on military orders more than 35 miles from his or her residence may have the license expiration extended for the duration of the deployment plus 180 days. The extension is automatic on submission of orders to FDACS and does not require payment of a renewal fee while on protected status.

Florida Law Enforcement Officers and Judges - Actual Fee Relief

Unlike military applicants, Florida law enforcement officers and judges do receive fee relief, and it is statutory rather than a matter of department policy.

§ 790.06(5)(b) provides that an individual holding an active Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission certification as a law enforcement officer, correctional officer, or correctional probation officer as defined in § 943.10(1), (2), (3), (6), (7), (8), or (9) "is exempt from the licensing requirements of this section." If such an officer wants a CWFL anyway, the officer "is exempt from the background investigation and all background investigation fees but must pay the current license fees regularly required to be paid by nonexempt applicants." In practice that means the $55 license fee with no $42 fingerprint-processing fee - $55 rather than $97. The same paragraph exempts a law enforcement officer, correctional officer, or correctional probation officer as defined in § 943.10(1), (2), or (3) from "the required fees and background investigation for 1 year after his or her retirement," so a Florida officer who applies within one year of retiring pays nothing. Past that one-year window the statutory exemption lapses, but FDACS does not charge the retired officer the full standard rate: the published fee schedule sets a $30 license fee plus the $42 fingerprint-processing fee, $72 in all, for a Florida law enforcement officer retired more than one year. That $30 rate is a department figure rather than a statutory one.

§ 790.061 exempts judges. A county court judge, circuit court judge, district court of appeal judge, justice of the supreme court, federal district court judge, or federal court of appeals judge serving in Florida "is not required to comply with the provisions of s. 790.06 in order to receive a license," except that the judge must still satisfy the § 790.06(2)(h) competence requirement. FDACS "shall issue a license ... upon demonstration of competence." Because the § 790.06(5) fee provisions are among the requirements the judge need not satisfy, a qualifying judge pays no license fee.

These reductions turn on Florida certification or Florida judicial service. An officer certified only in another state is a standard applicant and pays the full $97.

Realistic Total Cost for a New Florida CWFL

Combining the statutory and market components, a realistic out-of-pocket total for a new Florida CWFL applicant looks like this:

The narrower $147-$247 range covers the most common case: the $97 FDACS total and a $50-$150 instructor course, with no separate range fee and no tax-collector convenience fee. Renewal totals are lower. The § 790.06(5)(b) cap drops to $45, no new course is required to renew, and a Florida resident does not repeat fingerprinting during the seven-year retained-print monitoring window. An out-of-state licensee does resubmit fingerprints at renewal under § 790.06(11)(a), which is why an out-of-state renewal runs $87 rather than $45.

Fee Summary Table

The $42 fingerprint-processing charge and the $30 retired-officer license fee are department figures rather than statutory ones, and FDACS can change them without a legislative amendment; the license-fee caps, the $22/$12 tax-collector convenience fees, the officer and judge exemptions, the seven-year term, and the 90-day decision window are all statutory. Verify the current processing charge against the FDACS Division of Licensing fee schedule before quoting a total to a student.

Cross-References

• Eligibility, license term, and the issuing-authority framework: PERMIT_BASICS
• The seven competence paths and the live-fire requirement: TRAINING_REQUIREMENTS
• Tax-collector intake mechanics, online portal, and the 90-day decision clock: APPLICATION_PROCESS
• Renewal mechanics and the deployment-extension under § 790.06(11)(b): RENEWAL_PROCESS
• Why Florida's preemption clause bars county-level surcharges or additional fees: PREEMPTION