The Florida temporary liquor license
Last verified: August 15, 2026 against 6 primary sources.
Your build-out is finished, the staff are hired, and the license is still somewhere inside the state. A Florida temporary liquor license is what lets you open the doors and start selling anyway, for $100 or a quarter of your annual fee, whichever is greater.
They are unrelated. This page separates them, because picking the wrong one wastes a week.
Search for this and you get two completely different things mixed together. One lets a new business sell before its permanent license arrives. The other is a permit for a nonprofit running a one-off event. This page is mostly about the first.
What is a temporary liquor license in Florida?
If you are opening a business and waiting on a license, you want the temporary initial license under section 561.181. It costs $100 or one quarter of the annual license fee, whichever is greater, and once it is issued you can sell (Fla. Stat. 561.181).
If you are a nonprofit running a fundraiser, that is a different form entirely and not something we handle. Details at the bottom.
How much is a temporary liquor license in Florida?
This is the one that solves the expensive problem: a signed lease, a finished build-out, and no license yet. Rather than sitting closed, you buy a temporary license and open.
What it costs
The fee is one quarter of the annual license fee for the type you applied for, or $100, whichever is greater (Fla. Stat. 561.181). Because a quarter of the beer and wine fees falls under $100, those all land on the floor.
| License | Temporary fee |
|---|---|
| 1APS, 2APS, 1COP, and 2COP | $100 |
| 4COP in a county over 100,000 | $455 |
A 4COP in a large county works out at $455, a quarter of $1,820 (DBPR temporary license fee chart (rev. 05/16/2025)). Set against a month of rent on a room that cannot open, none of these are really costs.
The condition that catches people
DBPR issues one when the application is complete on its face and nothing in it appears disqualifying (Fla. Stat. 561.181, DBPR: How to get an alcoholic beverage license). That phrase is doing a lot of work.
It means the temporary license is not a way around an unfinished application. If your zoning sign-off is missing, or the Department of Revenue has not signed, the file is not complete on its face and there is nothing to issue against. People try to file early to "start the clock" and lose the one mechanism that would have let them open.
You request it with the application itself. The checklist item is paying $100 or a quarter of the annual fee if you want one (DBPR ABT-6001 application packet).
When it ends
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 that carefully: it ends 14 days after approval, not when you get round to collecting the permanent license. It is a bridge, not a license in its own right, and it is deliberately short.
It also ends immediately on denial. A temporary license is not a signal that your application will be approved, and nothing about holding one guarantees the outcome.
Where people lose weeks
Filing early to get a temporary license sooner
The completeness test means an early, partial filing produces neither a permanent license nor a temporary one (Fla. Stat. 561.181). Slower and complete beats faster and short.
Not asking for one at all
It is an optional checklist item, not something DBPR volunteers (DBPR ABT-6001 application packet). Plenty of people wait out an unpredictable approval without ever knowing they could have been trading for $100.
Treating the 14 days as a grace period
Once your permanent license is approved the temporary one has two weeks left (Fla. Stat. 561.181). If you are not watching for the approval, the bridge can expire while you are still standing on it.
Is a one day event permit the same thing?
The other result you will see searching for this is the special sales license for nonprofit civic organizations running a temporary event, which uses form ABT-6003 (DBPR ABT-6003 special sales license form). It is a separate form for a separate purpose and has nothing to do with opening a business.
We do not prepare those. If that is what you need, the form and its instructions are on the DBPR site.
Related reading
For why the wait is unpredictable in the first place, see how long a Florida liquor license takes. For every fee in one table, see what a license costs. For the order everything happens in, see how to apply.