Registered Nurse (RN) License Renewal in Ohio
Ohio RNs renew every 2 years and need 24 CE hours, including 1 hour on Ohio nursing law. Renewal is $65 ($75 multistate). First renewal is CE-exempt.
| Renewal cycle | Every 2 years |
|---|---|
| CE hours required | 24 hours |
| Renewal fee | $65.00 |
| Mandatory CE topics | Ohio Nurse Practice Act law and rules (1 hr Category A, every renewal after the first) |
| Licensing board | Ohio Board of Nursing |
Sourced from Ohio Board of Nursing, verified July 12, 2026. Requirements change. Confirm with your board before relying on this.
Ohio is one of the few states that genuinely exempts brand-new nurses from continuing education entirely, but only for that first renewal. It’s also one of the newer Nursing Licensure Compact states, having joined years after the original 2018 wave.
The first-renewal exemption
If you were licensed by examination, your very first renewal doesn’t require any contact hours. The 24-hour requirement, including its 1-hour Category A law-and-rules mandate, starts with your second renewal. It’s a real exemption, not a delayed deadline, so don’t scramble to find CE hours for a first renewal that doesn’t need them.
Category A, specifically
One of your 24 hours has to be Category A: content directly tied to the Ohio Nurse Practice Act (Chapter 4723) and its Board rules, delivered by an OBN-approved provider, an OBN-recognized approver like the Ohio Nurses Association, or a provider headquartered in Ohio. A generic law-and-ethics course from an out-of-state provider may not satisfy this unless it’s specifically approved.
Ohio joined the compact in 2023, later than most of its neighbors
Ohio implemented the Nurse Licensure Compact on January 1, 2023, roughly five years after founding states like Texas, Florida, and Georgia joined in January 2018. If Ohio is your primary state of residence, your RN license is now a multistate license, letting you practice in other compact states without a separate application. Nurses who were licensed in Ohio before 2023 and never checked their license type should confirm their current status reflects multistate eligibility rather than assuming it wasn’t available at all.
Tracking your hours between renewals
The 24 hours don’t have to be earned in a single sitting, and most Ohio nurses spread them across the full two-year window rather than cramming before the deadline.
What renewal costs, and what a late renewal costs
A single-state Ohio RN renewal runs $65 biennially; a multistate license (available if Ohio is your residence state) runs $75, both processed through the eLicense Ohio portal with a $3.50 transaction fee on top. Licenses expire October 31 of odd-numbered years, so every Ohio RN renews on the same statewide schedule rather than a birth-month rolling cycle. Submit after the deadline but before October 31, and a $50 late processing fee applies on top of the standard renewal fee.
Let the license lapse past October 31 entirely and you move into reinstatement territory: the Ohio Revised Code sets the base reinstatement fee at $100, though the actual requirements scale with how long the license has been lapsed. A license expired less than two years typically reinstates with the application and fee; a longer lapse can trigger additional competency review, and a lapse of more than five years can mean retaking the NCLEX. Check your exact timeline against the Board’s current reinstatement guidance before assuming the shortest path applies.
What we previously couldn’t verify
An earlier version of this page could not confirm a specific renewal fee for Ohio. That’s now resolved directly against Ohio Revised Code Section 4723.08: the biennial RN renewal fee is $65 (single-state) or $75 (multistate), with a $100 base reinstatement fee for lapsed licenses.
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 Ohio Board of Nursing.
How many CE hours do you have left?
Ohio 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:
- Ohio Nurse Practice Act law and rules (1 hr Category A, every renewal after the first)
A convenience, not a compliance service. Confirm your exact requirement with the Ohio Board of Nursing. This is not legal advice.
Continuing education hours per renewal cycle
Ohio 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, Ohio is 16 of 37.
Renewal fee
Ohio charges $65. The median across the 49 states that publish a figure is $100, running from $50 to $245. Ranked cheapest to dearest, Ohio is 4 of 49.
Each mark is one state. The taller line is the median, the filled dot is Ohio. 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?
Ohio'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 Ohio Board of Nursing 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.