Iowa Pesticide Applicator License 2026: Exams, Fees, Renewal

Which Iowa certification do you need?

Private applicator: you use restricted use pesticides to grow an agricultural commodity on land you or your employer own or rent.
Commercial applicator: you’re in the business of applying any pesticide to other people’s land or property.
Noncommercial and public applicators: you take the same core and category exams as commercial applicators, and pay the public rate if you’re a public applicator.
Certified handler: new under Iowa’s 2026 rules, for handling pesticides in open containers to prepare, mix or load them.
Commercial applicators also need a company license for the business they work for.

How do you get an Iowa pesticide applicator license?

Buy the manual for your exam from the ISU Extension and Outreach Store. Commercial applicators study the Iowa Core Manual plus a manual for each category.
Book an exam. Private applicators take one 50-question exam. Commercial, noncommercial and public applicators take a 50-question core exam and a 35-question exam for each category. All are closed book.
Pass. IDALS’s exam sign-up form sets 80% for every commercial certification. IDALS doesn’t publish a pass mark for the private exam.
Apply and pay IDALS the certification fee below.

Since January 1, 2026 you must be at least 18 to apply a restricted use pesticide in Iowa, apart from family members 16 or older working under direct supervision on the family farm. Oral exams are no longer offered.

Iowa license fees

Item	Fee
Commercial certification, 3 years	$75
Private or public certification, 3 years	$15
Late company license renewal, extra	$6.25

The Iowa Code sets the certification fees.

Where you can take the Iowa exam

Free in person at ISU Extension offices in Black Hawk, Cerro Gordo, Dallas, Dubuque, Fayette, Johnson, Marshall, Scott, Sioux and Woodbury counties, monthly from September to May. Register at least two days ahead. Sessions last 90 minutes, with up to four exams.
Online with Everblue, IDALS’s online proctor partner, for $28 an exam.
At community college test sites on IDALS’s alternate sites list, which set their own testing fees.

IDALS ended the unproctored private applicator exam, a COVID-era option, on December 31, 2025. Bring a government-issued photo ID.

Keeping your Iowa certification

Every certification lasts three years. You keep it by passing the exam again in the third year, or by going to a continuing instruction course (CIC) each year. Private applicators go to a private CIC between December 1 and April 15 in each year their card covers, then send IDALS the renewal fee. Commercial applicators go to a commercial CIC every calendar year for each category. Categories 1D, 1E, 7E and 10 renew by exam only.

Company licenses run by calendar year. For 2027, IDALS wants renewals by December 31, 2026.

Renewal courses and fees →How long certificates last in other states →