How long does it take to get a liquor license in Florida?
Last verified: August 15, 2026 against 9 primary sources.
You have a lease, a build-out, and a date in your head. What you want to know is whether the license lands before the rent does.
The honest answer is that nobody can tell you, including the state. What we can do is show you where the time actually goes, and point you at the thing that solves the problem anyway.
How long does it take to get a liquor license in Florida?
Florida does not publish a processing time. DBPR gives none on any page we checked, and the Department of Revenue publishes none for its part of the approval (Florida Department of Revenue beverage license approval).
You will see "90 days" quoted widely. We could not trace it to a single government source. The most detailed site publishing that figure labels its own numbers as AI-generated and indicative only. We are not going to repeat a number we cannot stand behind.
The useful answer is different: you do not have to wait. Florida sells a temporary license that lets you start selling while the permanent one works through (Fla. Stat. 561.181). That is what most people actually need to know.
What actually decides how long your application takes?
Three things, none of them DBPR, and all of them variable.
Your city or county zoning office
Zoning approval is required on every new application (DBPR ABT-6001 application packet) and it is yours to collect. When we researched eight Florida jurisdictions the process ranged from a polished online portal to nothing published at all, with two cities documenting no alcohol sign-off procedure whatsoever. Some publish a turnaround; most do not. This is usually the longest single leg.
The Department of Revenue service center
You register the business for sales and use tax, then email your signed application to the Department of Revenue and wait for them to sign it. Your local service center handles it. They publish no turnaround time at all (Florida Department of Revenue beverage license approval). Start this one early; it gates everything downstream.
Fingerprint results
The most predictable of the three. DBPR says results reach them two to four days after a livescan vendor visit, and asks that you are printed at least five days before applying (DBPR Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco FAQ). The way this goes wrong is not slowness but silence: give the vendor the wrong ORI number and the results never arrive at all (DBPR fingerprinting page).
Can you sell alcohol while you wait for the license?
This is the mechanism that exists precisely because the wait is unpredictable. Once your application is complete on its face and nothing in it looks disqualifying, DBPR can issue a temporary license and you can begin selling (Fla. Stat. 561.181).
It costs $100 or one quarter of the annual license fee, whichever is greater, which works out at $100 for beer and wine and $455 for a 4COP in a large county (DBPR temporary license fee chart (rev. 05/16/2025)). A temporary license ends when the application is denied, or 14 days after it is approved, or when the permanent license is issued, whichever happens first.
Read the detail on the Florida temporary liquor license, including what "complete on its face" is doing in that sentence.
How do you check your Florida liquor license status?
DBPR runs an online system for license accounts and applications (DBPR online services), and its FAQ says every applicant is now required to file through it (DBPR Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco FAQ).
We have to be straight with you about a wrinkle here, because it affects how you check on anything.
Online or paper? Two official answers
DBPR's Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco FAQ says that everyone applying is now required to file through DBPR's online system, and that staff will help walk-in and mail applicants set up an account and file that way. DBPR Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco FAQ
The ABT-6001 application packet, last revised in August 2013, still tells applicants to send the completed application and fees to their local district office by mail, by appointment, or by dropping it off. DBPR’s "How to get an alcoholic beverage license" overview also still describes filing at the district office. DBPR ABT-6001 application packet DBPR: How to get an alcoholic beverage license
What to do: The FAQ is the newer of the two, so it appears to be the current rule. But the online system’s direct web address and the date the online rule took effect do not appear on any DBPR page we checked. Confirm how to file with your DBPR district office before you send anything.
In practice: the fastest way to find out where your application stands is to call the district office that covers your county. The list is on how to get a liquor license in Florida, and central licensing in Tallahassee is (850) 488-3227 (DBPR district office contact list).
Where people lose weeks
Starting the Revenue step last
Nothing tells you the Department of Revenue sign-off is your job until you read Section 5 of the form closely. People send everything else, then discover they still need a signature from an agency they have not contacted, which publishes no turnaround (Florida Department of Revenue beverage license approval). Start it in week one.
Filing something incomplete to "get the clock started"
Tempting, and it backfires twice. An incomplete application does not qualify for the temporary license, because the test is that it is complete on its face (Fla. Stat. 561.181). So the shortcut costs you the one thing that would have let you open.
Assuming somebody will chase it for you
Zoning, Revenue, and health approvals are collected by the applicant, not routed by DBPR (DBPR ABT-6001 application packet). Nothing moves while you wait for a call that is not coming. Call them.
Related reading
The full sequence is on how to apply, every fee is on what a license costs, and if a full bar is the plan the SFS restaurant license avoids a year-long wait for a quota drawing.