California CPA CPE Requirements: How Many Hours, By When

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Verified 2026-11-07

CPE Hour Requirement

80 hours every 2 years

20-hour minimum in each 1-year period (you can't front-load the whole requirement into a single year).
4 ethics hours, within that same total.

Source of record Cal. Code Regs. tit. 16, § 87 read the rule →

80 hours in the 2-year period immediately preceding license expiration, minimum 20 hours each year (12 of which must be technical subject matter), including 4 hours of ethics education. A separate Regulatory Review course requirement (§87.8) also applies on a longer cycle -- not counted as 'ethics' here since it's a distinct named requirement, noted separately if this cluster expands.

Which license?

Individual license: fill in birth month and year (your cycle follows your birth month and whether your birth year is odd or even). Firm permit: fill in the month and year the CBA originally approved it (it expires on the last day of that month, every two years, in years odd or even like the approval year).

What does it cost to reinstate a lapsed California license? →

See California's CPA license renewal page →

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