Independent: We are not a state agency and not affiliated with the EPA or any state department of agriculture. Always confirm requirements with your state department of agriculture. Rev. 2026.07.30
Applicator Prep Applicator License Calibrate your equipment

About Applicator Prep

An applicator with a backpack sprayer applying a treatment toward a leaf nested in a shield with a pass check, standing above a row of treated field furrows: protect what you treat, verified.

Applicator Prep is an independent, free study resource for people getting, keeping, or extending a pesticide applicator license, private or commercial, in any US state or the District of Columbia.

What we build

Two things: a guided, equipment-specific calibration and mix-rate workflow that walks the real physical steps instead of handing back one bare number, and a dated, sourced comparison of every state's applicator license categories, fees, continuing-education requirements, and reciprocity rules. Every published fee, category, and cycle carries the primary-source link and the date it was checked.

Why this matters

This is a large, working occupation, not a niche credential. The EPA estimates approximately 1,000,000 applicators nationwide are certified to use restricted-use pesticides (RUPs), plus roughly 930,000 additional noncertified applicators working under a certified applicator's supervision (EPA, Certification Standards for Pesticide Applicators, verified 2026-07-30). Federal minimum certification standards are set under 40 CFR Part 171, with each state's own department of agriculture (or equivalent agency) running its own category, fee, and renewal structure on top of that baseline.

Who operates this site

Applicator Prep is published and operated by Urban Algorithm LLC. We are not a state agency, not the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and not affiliated with or endorsed by any state department of agriculture. We cannot certify anyone: certification is granted by your state's certifying agency. This site is a study and field-reference supplement, and the pesticide product label remains the controlling legal document for any application.

Our data method

Every fee, category structure, continuing-education requirement, and reciprocity rule we publish is checked directly against the issuing state agency's own page, or against the EPA's federal certification standards (40 CFR Part 171) where a figure is a federal baseline. We link the source and show the date it was checked next to the figure. Where a state cannot yet be verified, we leave it out rather than publish a guess.

Contact

Questions, corrections, or something to report? Reach us through the Urban Algorithm contact page.