New York Hunting License Cost: $22 and Up
New York prints the tags on the licence rather than selling them separately
What a season in New York actually costs to start
A resident hunting licence in New York is $22, sold as the Annual Hunting License. New York is one of eleven in this reading where the tags come with the licence rather than on top of it, which makes the price on the fee page the price of the hunt. 39 of the 50 states are built the other way, and in those the licence is the smaller half. New York is one of the states where the base licence does most of the work: a $22 resident or $100 nonresident Annual Hunting License already covers deer and bear with no separate tag, while turkey, bow, muzzleloader and antlerless deer each cost extra, and the licence runs to 31 August whenever it was bought.
- Resident licence $22, the Annual Hunting License
- Nonresident licence $100
- First deer on top of it $10, the Deer Management Permit
- The licence runs runs a licence year with its own start and end dates, set by the state rather than by the calendar
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation sells it through its own licensing system, which is where a fee change appears first.
Every New York hunting licence, at the price New York State Department of Environmental Conservation prints
Everything a New York licence holder needs for the species it names is in the licence itself. That is unusual: 39 of the 50 states read here sell the animal separately from the right to hunt it, and Alabama, Arkansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont and West Virginia do not.
- Annual Hunting License$22
big game and small game, with no separate deer or bear tag to buy
annual
| $22 (ages 16-69) $5 (ages 70+) $5 (ages 12-15) | $100 (ages 16+) $5 (ages 12-15) _(Note: It is not necessary to purchase a separate bear tag when buying a hunting license._ _Small game and big game hunting is now included in the annual hunting license for both_ _residents and nonresidents.)_ |
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Annual Hunting License$100
big game and small game, with no separate deer or bear tag to buy
annual
| $22 (ages 16-69) $5 (ages 70+) $5 (ages 12-15) | $100 (ages 16+) $5 (ages 12-15) _(Note: It is not necessary to purchase a separate bear tag when buying a hunting license._ _Small game and big game hunting is now included in the annual hunting license for both_ _residents and nonresidents.)_ |
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Annual Hunting License, ages 12 to 15$5
big game and small game at the junior rate, resident or nonresident
annual
| $22 (ages 16-69) $5 (ages 70+) $5 (ages 12-15) | $100 (ages 16+) $5 (ages 12-15) _(Note: It is not necessary to purchase a separate bear tag when buying a hunting license._ _Small game and big game hunting is now included in the annual hunting license for both_ _residents and nonresidents.)_ |
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Annual Hunting License, ages 70 and over$5
big game and small game at the resident senior rate
annual
| $22 (ages 16-69) $5 (ages 70+) $5 (ages 12-15) | $100 (ages 16+) $5 (ages 12-15) _(Note: It is not necessary to purchase a separate bear tag when buying a hunting license._ _Small game and big game hunting is now included in the annual hunting license for both_ _residents and nonresidents.)_ |
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Military veteran with 40% or greater service related disability$5
the same annual hunting licence at a reduced fee for qualifying veterans
annual
$5 fishing, hunting, or trapping license. The first purchase of either hunting, fishing, or trapping license within a calendar year will cost $5. Subsequent purchases of these license types within the same calendar year will be free for qualifying customers.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Bowhunting License$235
deer and bear with a bow during the special bowhunting season, for life
lifetime
$235 (All)
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Hunting License$535
big game and small game for life, residents only
lifetime
$535 (All)
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
When a New York hunting license expires Licence year
New York runs a licence year with its own start and end dates, set by the state rather than by the calendar. The year turns on a date the state picked, usually in the spring or early autumn, so what a licence is worth depends on where in that year it was bought. The sentence the state uses is quoted below and links to the page it came from.
A New York annual hunting licence runs on a licence year that ends on 31 August whatever date in that year it was bought.
Annual hunting licenses and privileges are valid from September 1 through August 31 each year.New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
Hunter education in New York
New York requires hunter education, and it sets the requirement without a birth year cutoff, so the test is what the applicant has done rather than when they were born. 29 of the 50 states read here use a birth year instead, and those years run from 1949 to 1986.
New York applies the course to all first time hunters rather than to a birth year, and DEC says students must be 11 or older to take it.
All first-time hunters must pass one or more courses before they can get a hunting license in New York.New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
Who counts as a New York resident
New York draws the resident line at 30 days, and the difference between the two sides of it is $22 against $100. The statutory definition is quoted below.
To qualify for a resident sporting license, you must have permanent residency in New York State for more than 30 days.New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
39 of 50 states sell the animal separately from the right to hunt it
New York is one of 11 states in this reading that print the tags on the licence, which is why its fee page price is the price of the hunt. In the other 39, the licence is the first of two purchases and the number a search result shows is the smaller half.
Resident licences across these states run from $10 to $64.54, and nonresident licences from $50 to $410, which is the widest spread on any licence this site has read. 25 states run a licence year of their own, 9 give a full year from the day of sale, and 9 end it on 31 December whatever month it was bought.
The national table puts New York beside every other state on licence price, first tag, and the two added together.
New York hunting license questions
More for New York
Hunting licenses in every state
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation read 23 September 2026, with every licence price, tag price, expiry rule and hunter education cutoff above linked to the page it came from. Fees are set by statute or by a commission and change between seasons, so the agency page beside each figure is what governs on the day. Tags included