What each Alaska guide license authorizes

The five licenses and the one who signs

Alaska issues four guide licenses and one transporter license. Only one of them can sign a client contract for a guided big game hunt: the registered guide-outfitter.

Assistant guides and class-A assistant guides work for a registered guide-outfitter, inside limits set by statute. A registered guide-outfitter contracts, guides and outfits. A master guide-outfitter is a registered guide-outfitter with a title earned over decades. A transporter carries hunters and gear but may not guide.

Every one of the five is issued to a natural person except the transporter license, which an entity may hold. The climb between classes is covered in the licensing guide.

Only a registered guide-outfitter may contract to guide or outfit a big game hunt in Alaska; an assistant guide and a class-A assistant guide may not contract to guide or outfit a big game hunt. — Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board statutes and regulations, retrieved 2026-09-29

Assistant guide: supervised, never in charge

An assistant guide may guide big game hunters while employed by and supervised by a registered guide-outfitter or class-A assistant guide. That is the whole of the license.

An assistant guide may not take charge of a camp or provide guide services unless the contracting registered guide-outfitter is in the field and participating in the hunt, or a registered guide-outfitter or class-A assistant guide is physically present and supervising.

The assistant license is also where the unlicensed world touches guiding: a person with no license at all may pack meat, trophies and camp equipment under a registered guide-outfitter's delegation, and may assist in the field for training purposes while a licensed guide is physically present.

An assistant guide works employed by a registered guide-outfitter, supervised in the field by the contracting guide or a class-A assistant, and may not run a camp alone. — Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board statutes and regulations, retrieved 2026-09-29

A registered guide-outfitter may delegate packing of client meat, trophies and camp equipment to an unlicensed person, who may assist in the field for training while a licensed guide is present. — Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board statutes and regulations, retrieved 2026-09-29

Class-A assistant guide: a camp, one unit, still an employee

A class-A assistant guide may take charge of a camp and guide from it while the contracting registered guide-outfitter supervises the activities from elsewhere. That is the practical difference from the assistant license: the class-A can run the camp when the boss is on the radio rather than in camp.

The license is issued for one game management unit. A class-A assistant guide may not work as a class-A outside that unit, though any registered guide-outfitter in the state may employ them as an ordinary assistant guide anywhere.

Fees are modest: a $200 application fee and a $310 resident or $620 nonresident license fee. The field time the license requires, three calendar years guiding inside the unit, is the real price.

A class-A assistant guide may take charge of a camp while the contracting registered guide-outfitter supervises the activities, without being in the field. — Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board statutes and regulations, retrieved 2026-09-29

A class-A assistant guide license is issued for a specific game management unit, and the class-A may not perform class-A functions outside the unit named on the license. — Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board statutes and regulations, retrieved 2026-09-29

Registered guide-outfitter: the contract holder

The registered guide-outfitter may contract to guide or outfit hunts for big game, and may provide transportation services personally or through an assistant to their own clients. A registered guide-outfitter who contracts for a hunt must be primarily in the field, supervising and participating in that hunt.

The license carries species endorsements. A guide first licensed after July 30, 2006 must have sheep, moose, brown bear or mountain goat named on the license to contract for those species, and earns each endorsement through a minimum of three harvests on guided hunts for that species.

There is one short route around the exam: 25 years of experience as a class-A assistant guide substitutes for the qualification examination. Age and time substitute for nothing else, which is why the licensing guide describes the exam route as the normal one.

3 harvestsA registered guide-outfitter first licensed after July 30, 2006 must have sheep, moose, brown bear or mountain goat named on the license to contract for those species. — Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board statutes and regulations, retrieved 2026-09-29

A registered guide-outfitter who contracts to guide a big game hunt shall be primarily in the field supervising and participating in the contracted hunt. — Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board statutes and regulations, retrieved 2026-09-29

Master guide-outfitter: a title, not a new authority

A master guide-outfitter license authorizes the use of a title. For every other purpose under the licensing chapter, it is a registered guide-outfitter license.

Earning it takes a career: licensed as a registered guide or guide-outfitter for at least 15 of the last 20 years including the year immediately before applying, a list of at least 45 clients with favorable evaluations from 30 of them selected by the department, and a clean recent record. The application fee is $200, with the license fee at $850 resident or $1,700 nonresident.

For a client, the title signals duration in the trade. For the law, the master guide and the registered guide hold identical obligations, from the written contract to the hunt record to the responsibility for what their employees do on the hunt.

15 of 20 yearsA master guide-outfitter license authorizes the title only; eligibility requires 15 of the last 20 years licensed and favorable evaluations from 30 of at least 45 listed clients. — Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board statutes and regulations, retrieved 2026-09-29

$200 + $850The master guide-outfitter application fee is $200, with a license fee of $850 for residents and $1,700 for nonresidents. — Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board master guide-outfitter application, retrieved 2026-09-29

Transporter: wheels, floats and beds, no guiding

A transporter provides transportation services and field accommodations to big game hunters: carriage to, from and in the field, and stays at a permanent lodge, house or cabin the transporter owns, or on a boat with permanent living quarters on salt water.

A transporter may not provide big game hunting services without holding the appropriate guide license. The line is deliberate and enforced. A transporter files an annual activity report, holds proof of financial responsibility at the same $100,000 level as a guide, and must submit copies of any FAA and Coast Guard licenses applicable to the operation.

The transporter license is also the one license an LLC or corporation may hold, which is why an outfitting company often holds the transporter license while the guide license stays with a person. Building that structure is covered in the setup guide.

A transporter may carry big game hunters and provide field accommodations at a permanent lodge, house, cabin or salt-water boat, but may not provide big game hunting services. — Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board statutes and regulations, retrieved 2026-09-29

A transporter shall provide an annual activity report, and an applicant must submit copies of applicable Federal Aviation Administration and United States Coast Guard licenses with the application. — Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board statutes and regulations, retrieved 2026-09-29

What every class answers for

License class changes what you may do, not what you answer for. A registered guide-outfitter who contracts a hunt is equally responsible for violations of state or federal wildlife, guiding or transportation statutes committed by anyone working for them on that hunt.

The board can censure, suspend, revoke, impose remedial education or a civil fine up to $5,000, and must permanently revoke a license obtained through fraud. Breaching a client contract is itself a ground for discipline.

That shared responsibility is why the license ladder ends in a contract rung, and it is the reason a guide business thinks carefully about structure and insurance, in the structure comparison and the insurance page.

$5,000The board may impose a civil fine up to $5,000, suspend or permanently revoke a license, and must permanently revoke one obtained through fraud or misrepresentation. — Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board statutes and regulations, retrieved 2026-09-29

Questions