Massage License Requirements in New Hampshire
Verified against New Hampshire Office of Professional Licensure and Certification (OPLC) — Advisory Board of Massage Therapists · 2026-07-24 · verified by agent
New Hampshire's 725-hour training requirement is sourced from N.H. Admin. Code Plc 900 — Massage Therapists (rules), verified 2026-07-24. Its required exam — MBLEx (Massage & Bodywork Licensing Examination) — comes from the same source.
Compiled and verified against primary state-board sources by GetMassageLicense — cite-or-deny, with no invented figures. How we source & verify →
New Hampshire requires a statewide 'massage therapist' license issued by the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification's (OPLC) executive director under RSA 328-B, administered with input from the 3-member Advisory Board of Massage Therapists. Licensure requires graduating from a qualifying massage therapy school (COMTA/ABHES/ACCET-accredited, or a minimum 725-hour non-accredited curriculum) and passing the MBLEx or an equivalent nationally-recognized exam, after which a combined application-and-license fee covers a 2-year license requiring 12 hours of continuing education to renew.
New Hampshire Massage License Requirements
| Licensing Authority | New Hampshire Office of Professional Licensure and Certification (OPLC) — Advisory Board of Massage Therapists (OPLC) |
| Title | Massage Therapist |
| Training Hours | 725 hours — Qualifying massage therapy school accredited by COMTA, ABHES, or ACCET (no separate stated hour minimum in the rule text — the accreditor's own hour standard governs); or, if the school is not accredited, a minimum 725-hour curriculum over not less than 6.5 months |
| Exam | MBLEx (Massage & Bodywork Licensing Examination) (Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards (FSMTB)) Alternatives accepted: Any other written certifying exam recognized by at least one-third of states that license massage therapists (Plc 904.05) |
| Renewal Period | 2 years |
Fee Breakdown
| Initial License Fee | $121 |
| Renewal Fee (every 2 years) | $121 |
Recommended MBLEx exam prep
Formal prep pays for itself against a $265 retake. These are the resources we point candidates to for the MBLEx (Massage & Bodywork Licensing Examination).
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12 hours every 2 years, confirmed with no dedicated ethics-hour carve-out.
N.H. Admin. Code Plc 906.05 requires 12 hours of CE per 2-year renewal period (statutory basis RSA 328-B:4, VII(j)). 'Ethical or legal aspects of massage practice' is listed as one of 13 acceptable CE topic categories under Plc 906.06(d)(12), but there is no minimum number of hours that must specifically be ethics — it is an eligible topic, not a mandated carve-out.
Licensure by Endorsement
Full license by endorsement is available under Plc 313.33: an applicant licensed in another jurisdiction qualifies if that jurisdiction required completion of a state-approved education/training program and passing a nationally-recognized certifying exam (endorsement license valid 2 years). Separately, RSA 328-B:6, III lets the executive director waive licensure requirements (except the age-18 and criminal-history clauses) for an out-of-state/out-of-country licensee whose home jurisdiction's requirements are substantially equivalent to or not less than New Hampshire's. A non-renewable 1-year temporary license (RSA 328-B:5-a; Plc 905.01) is also available to applicants who are at least 21, completed a program with a minimum of 500 hours, and have practiced massage therapy in another state for at least 1 year, as a bridge while completing NH's additional requirements.
Sources
Source Notes
Where a source is stale, conflicting, or required a judgment call, we document it here rather than presenting a single confident-sounding number. See our methodology for how these calls are made.
- You may see a $110 license fee and a 750-hour training requirement reported for New Hampshire elsewhere. The current official rule sets these at $121 and 725 hours, which is what we use here.
Data last verified: 2026-07-24 (verified by: agent) | Source: N.H. Admin. Code Plc 900 — Massage Therapists (rules)